EASY TO SAY …

It’s easy to sit in the sunshine And talk to the man in the shade.

It’s easy to sit in a well-made boat And tell others where to wade.

It’s easy to tell the toiler How best to carry his pack.

But you’ll never know the weight of the load, Till the pack is on your back.

Thought for the week: “Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” — Sam Walton (1918-1992)

“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?'” — Brian Tracy

“Words: so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, but how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.” — Anon.

“Reason and the ability to use it are two separate skills.” — Franz Grillparzer

The ironworkers of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge do more than just maintain one of America’s best-known structures. Many of them are also volunteer suicide-prevention counselors for those who think a leap from the bridge will end all their pain. Few of the ironworkers have had training in human psychology and counseling. What makes their help so valuable is that they are willing to go where the need is. They will climb to the most precarious parts of the bridge to be with the person contemplating suicide.

In his seventeen years of working on the Golden Gate Bridge, ironworker Ken Hopper has stopped 30 people from making the jump. But the two suicides that did occur during his watch still haunt him. Few of the people whose lives are saved ever thank the ironworkers. Condensed in “Everyday Heroes” Reader’s Digest October 2001 p. 25-26.