Friday, August 28, 2009

Let Your Soul Live its Own Life!

This is an old quotation from Samuel H. Miller, the Dean of Harvard Divinity School but its truth comes with power:

“Let your soul speak for itself. Some souls hold conversation with God in music, and some in the sowing of seed, and others in the smell of sawed wood, and still others in the affectionate understanding of their friends. All souls are not alike. Utter your own prayer, in the language of your own joy. Repent of your own sin and let your lament be your own sorrow and not another’s. When you worship, thank God for whatever has given your joy, though it be so slight that no other soul would think it worthy of mention . . . Quit dressing your soul in somebody else’s piety. Your soul is not a pauper. Let it live its own life!”

Samuel H. Miller, The Life of the Soul.

Via Walter Shurden, Walter B. Shurden’s Preaching Journal, Vol. 2, Number 16, August 2009.

Walter ‘Buddy’ Shurden is Minister at Large, Professor Emeritus of Christianity, Mercer University, Macon, GA, USA.

For his bio and email to request Walter’s monthly journal follow this link.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “Some souls hold conversation with God in music.”

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Walter Shurden Discovers Why He Cried in this Chapel

Several years ago Kay and I visited beautiful Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

Flowers, trees, grass, butterflies, birds—all dressed in their spring best.

It was an incomparable April day. Stepping high, my life was light and airy.

We walked into the little Gothic chapel in the midst of the woodlands. Beautiful, gorgeous music came from the Moeller pipe organ. Only four other people were present. We sat in silence. We listened. We prayed.

Suddenly, unexpectedly tears formed in my eyes. Then I began to cry. Quickly my crying became uncontrollable sobs. After a couple of minutes of my “where-in-the-world-did-this-come-from” sobbing and not a little of embarrassment, Kay whispered, “We have to go, Buddy.” She led me out of the chapel and away from whatever it was that had churned my soul.

For years I had no idea what happened to me that day in that little chapel, how or why my spring joy birthed such sobs.

Only recently did I get a sliver of insight into that experience. It came in a line from a sermon of William Sloane Coffin, and I thought, “That’s it!”

Coffin: “There are moments of grace in this world so deep and true and painful that tears come to the eye not for grief, but because the universe is so true at that moment.”
(The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin: The Riverside Years, 439.)

Happiness—a universe that was so true at that moment—made me cry.

I want more of that, a happiness that makes you cry, in the time that I have left.

Source
Walter Shurden, Walter B. Shurden’s Preaching Journal, Vol. 2, Number 16, August 2009.

Walter ‘Buddy’ Shurden is Minister at Large, Professor Emeritus of Christianity, Mercer University, Macon, GA, USA.

For his bio and email to request Walter’s monthly journal follow this link. This is only one of many stories with rare insight.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Images: Glimpses of Callaway Gardens and the chapel.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Australia’s Best School Answering Machine Message

Aussie Humour
Here is an automated voice recording that you may enjoy and pass on to others.

It is the message from the Maroochydore High School in Queensland Australia.
The staff voted unanimously to record this on their school telephone answering machine.

This is the actual answering machine message for the school.

It came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children’s absences and missing homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children’s failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete enough school work to pass their classes.

Making Excuses/Taking Responsibility
It sounds like a joke but it is a stinging counter to the unwillingness of many to take personal responsibility and the tendency to blame others.

This is a great story for us and others when we are prone to making excuses.

Tune In
Listen to the voice recording at this link.

If you cannot hear it or you want the text, here it is:

Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection:

To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1

To make excuses for why your child did not do his work - Press 2

To complain about what we do - Press 3

To swear at staff members - Press 4

To ask why you didn’t get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5

If you want us to raise your child - Press 6

If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7

To request another teacher, for the third time this year - Press 8

To complain about bus transportation - Press 9

To complain about school lunches - Press 0

If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible for his/her own behaviour, class work, homework and that it’s not the teachers’ fault for your child’s lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!

If you want this in another language, move to a country that speaks it.

Link
Message on School Answering Machine in Australia, Devin’s Posterous, 9 August 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: “Here is an automated voice recording that you may enjoy and pass on to others.”

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Glenn Hinson on His Life-Changing Encounter with Thomas Merton

Glenn Hinson, who taught church history and spirituality at Southern Seminary in Louisville for more than thirty years, wrote recently of his encounter with Thomas Merton.

He said, “Merton was one of my happiest ‘accidents.’ I took students to the Abbey of Gethsemani on 7 November 1960, to introduce them to the Middle Ages. Merton was our bonus. He changed the lives of every one of us and continues to do that for countless others.”

Hinson wrote earlier of one of the episodes that occurred on this history ‘field trip’ to the monastery in the hills of Kentucky. The class came primarily to develop their awareness of the communities that developed in the Middle Ages, not to learn about a life of prayer.

The host,Thomas Merton, gave the class more than they expected. After talking about the rise of the monastic life in the Medieval period, Merton asked if there were any questions.

One student asked what Hinson most feared would be asked. The student said, “What’s a smart fellow like you doing in a place like this?”

Hinson said that he expected Merton to respond in anger or frustration that he’d not been heard, but Merton responded very simply: “I am here because this is my vocation. I believe in prayer.”

Links
Glenn Hinson, Thomas Merton Facebook Page, 29 July 2009.

E. Glenn Hinson, Spiritual Preparation for Christian Leadership, Nashville, Upper Room Books, 1999, 151.

This ‘vocation’ story is one of the many stories from the book by Geoff Pound, Making Life Decisions: Journey in Discernment, Eureka: John Broadbanks Publishing, 2009, 54-56.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Thomas Merton.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Cory Aquino on ‘The Only Thing I Can Offer’

Leader of People Power
Corazon Aquino who was swept into office on a wave of “people power” in 1986 and then faced down half a dozen coup attempts in six years as president, died of cancer on 31st July 2009 in Manila, at the age of 76.

Bearer of Hope
Demure but radiant in her familiar yellow dress, Mrs. Aquino brought hope to the Philippines as a presidential candidate, then led its difficult transition to democracy from 20 years of autocratic rule under her predecessor, Ferdinand Marcos.

Popular Will
That initial triumph of popular will — after a fraudulent election in which Mr. Marcos claimed victory, though most people believed that Mrs. Aquino had won — was a high point in modern Philippine history, and it offered a model for nonviolent uprisings that has been repeated often in other countries.

An observant Roman Catholic who sometimes retreated to convents for contemplation, she attributed much of her success to a divine will.

Only Thing I Can Offer
“What on earth do I know about being president?” Mrs. Aquino said in an interview in December 1985, after a rally opening her election campaign.

But that was beside the point. For many Filipinos, she embodied a hope of becoming a better nation and a prouder people.

“The only thing I can really offer the Filipino people is my sincerity,” she said in the interview.

It was what they hungered for, and what she delivered as president. Although often criticized as an indecisive and ineffectual leader, Mrs. Aquino combined passivity and stubbornness and an unexpected shrewdness to hold firm against powerful opponents from both the right and the left.

Greatest Triumph
Her survival in office was one of her chief accomplishments.

Link to full story.
Seth Mydans, Corazon Aquino, Ex-Leader of Philippines, Is Dead, New York Times, 31 July 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Corazon Aquino.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Parker Palmer on the Rosa Parks Decision

In an interview Parker Palmer speaks not only of individuals choosing to live integrated lives but about what happens on a larger scale when people decide they will no longer live divided lives?

Rosa Parks Decision
“In political/social terms, I call this the Rosa Parks decision. She essentially said, ‘I'm no longer going to behave on the outside as if I were less than the full person I know myself to be on the inside.’

“How do people find the courage to bring inner convictions into harmony with outer acts, knowing the risks involved?

I think in Rosa Parks' story there's a clue: When the police came to Rosa Parks on the bus and informed her that they would have to put her in jail if she did not move, she replied, ‘You may do that.’ It was a very polite way of saying, ‘How could your jail begin to compare with the jail I have had myself in all these years by collaborating with this racist system?’”

“When you realize that you can no longer collaborate in something that violates your own integrity, your understanding of punishment is suddenly transformed.”

Purpose of Communities
Parker Palmer went on to speak of the value of communities:

“The first purpose of these communities is mutual reassurance; people help each other to understand that the ‘normal’ behavior expected by the institutions they are part of can be crazy, but that seeking integrity is always sane.”

“In the movement sparked by Rosa Parks, the Black churches provided gathering places for people who needed to know that they were not alone in choosing an integral life.”

Read more of this fine interview:

Sarah Ruth van Gelder, Integral Life, Integral Teacher-An Interview With Parker Palmer, Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures, 2 November 1998.

Related
Parker Palmer on Living and Teaching with Integrity, Stories for Speakers and Writers (SFS), 12 August 2009.

Rosa Parks and the Power of a Committed Person, SFS, 19 May 2009.

‘Everybody Can Be Great,’ SFS, 15 January 2007.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound@gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Rosa Parks.

Monday, August 17, 2009

The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over A Lazy Dog

Testing! Testing!
This sentence (or variations) is an English Pangram (a phrase that contains all the letters of the alphabet).

We sometimes type this sentence to test out a computer keyboard or trial a new font which we might use on the computer.

Quick Foxes
There were no foxes in New Zealand when I was growing up but I was surprised at the number of foxes I saw in the inner city of Melbourne when I lived around Princes Park (Carlton). The foxes were always quick and would escape from public gaze into the grounds of the cemetery. Any foxes where you live?

I have never seen a fox jump over a lazy dog.

Slow Brown Fox
Here is a video clip of a slow brown fox jumping over a lazy dog.



Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: The phrase shown in metal moveable type, used in old printing presses. The image is mirrored for readability. Thanks to Wikipedia.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Carol Smith on What You Learn Eating with People

In a New York Times interview about women, Presidents, managers and handling time, Carol Smith, Senior Vice President and Chief Brand Officer for the Elle Group, shared about the importance of meals before hiring new staff:

Three Meals
“I am living by something I read in Cathie Black’s book [“Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life)”] which I sort of instinctively knew — that you’ve got to meet someone three times, and one of them better be over a meal.”

You Learn So Much in a Meal
“You learn so much in a meal. It’s like a little microcosm of life. How they order, what they order. How are they going to give instructions to a waiter? Are they sending back the meal eight times? Can they keep the conversation going, especially if you’re hiring someone who is in sales? Are they asking smart questions?”

Subtle Ways Emerge
“Throughout a meal, the personality comes out, I think. Are you going to connect with us? Are you going to be part of the team, or are you going to be one of these independent players who wants to take all the credit? Are you good with assistants? Those are things you can find out in some subtle ways when you eat with someone.”

Link
Carol Smith, No Doubts: Women are Better Managers, New York Times, 25 July 2009.

Related
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen, RBM, 21 September 2007.
Three Cups of Tea in A thousand Splendid Suns, SFS, 24 October 2007.
On Making Your Own Lunch, SFS, 11 August 2009.
Crap Coffee, SFS, 1 May 2006.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: “You learn so much in a meal.”

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Parker Palmer on Living and Teaching with Integrity

Parker Palmer’s Story
“What I know about living a divided life starts with my training as an academic. I was taught to keep things in airtight compartments: to keep my ideas apart from my feelings, because ideas were reliable but feelings were not; to keep my theories apart from my actions, because the theory can be pure, but the action is always sullied.

“For the teachers I meet around the country, the decision to live divided-no-more means teaching in a way that corresponds to the truth that they know, rather than according to the latest pedagogical fad or to whatever pressures the institution may be putting on them. These are teachers, for example, who are integrating emotional work with cognitive work in the classroom.”

“At a certain juncture, some people find they must choose between allowing selfhood to die or claiming their identity and integrity. What I mean by divided-no-more is living on the outside the truth you know on the inside.”

Choosing to Live ‘Divided-No-More’
Parker Parker:

“Let me tell you a story about two teachers, a story I tell in The Courage to Teach.”

“Alan and Eric were born into different families of skilled rural craftspeople. Each grew skilled in working with his hands and developed a sense of pride in their respective crafts. Both also excelled in school and became the first in their families to go to college, eventually earning doctorates and choosing academic careers.”

“Here their paths diverged. Eric, who attended an elite private college, suffered culture shock and was always insecure with fellow students and later with academic colleagues. He learned to speak and act like an intellectual, but he always felt fraudulent. This insecurity didn't draw Eric into self-reflection; instead, he bullied his way through his professional life, made pronouncements rather than probes, listened for weaknesses rather than strengths in what other people said. In his classroom, Eric was critical and judgmental, quick to put down ‘stupid questions,’ adept at using trick questions of his own, and merciless in mocking wrong answers.

“Alan's is a different story. He attended a land-grant university where many students had backgrounds much like his own. He was not driven to hide his gift, but was able to honor and transform it by turning it toward his work in academia. Watching Alan teach, you felt that you were watching a craftsman at work. In his lectures, every move Alan made was informed by attention to detail and respect for the materials at hand.”

“Beyond the classroom, students knew that Alan would extend himself with great generosity to any of them who wanted to become his apprentice.”

“Alan taught from an undivided self – an integral state of being in which every major thread of one's life experience is honored, creating a weave of coherence and strength. Such a self is able to make the outward connections on which good teaching depends.”

Read more of this Interview:

Sarah Ruth van Gelder, Integral Life, Integral Teacher-An Interview With Parker Palmer, Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures, 2 November 1998.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Parker Palmer.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

On Making Your Own Lunch

There is an old story about a construction worker named Bob, who regularly took his lunch to work. However, everyday he complained profusely about the contents of his lunch box.

"A turkey sandwich again," he remarked one day, "I hate turkey sandwiches!"

After hearing his daily complaints, one of his co-workers piped in, "Bob, for crying out loud. I can't stand hearing you complain everyday. Just tell your wife to make you other food if you hate turkey sandwiches so much."

To which Bob replied, "Wife? I live alone, and make my own lunch."

Dumping Twitter Users
Tech blogger and ultra geek Robert Scoble, who was following over a whopping 100,000 users on Twitter decided to dump them all, and only add those of interest. He essentially realized that he could make his own lunch—and pick the users he wanted to follow.

Bill Gates Dumping Facebook
Bill Gates says he couldn’t keep up with all his friends let alone his fans so he has dumped Facebook. Bill is making his own lunch.

Make Your Own Lunch
Make your own lunch and decide what you want to eat and do.

Source
Soren Gordhamer, Keeping Twitter Relevant: The Art of Unfollowing, Huffington Post, 8 August 2009.

Check it Out
Check out the new site America’s Cup in the UAE.

Sister Sites to Stories for Speakers and Writers
Nissan's First Electric Car Could Be in UAE By 2010, Experiencing the Emirates.
Visit Al Bidya Mosque—The Oldest Worship Place in the Emirates, Fujairah in Focus.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “I hate turkey sandwiches.”

Monday, August 10, 2009

Bill Gates Tells Why He Never Got into the Hotdog Business

Ice Creams to Eskimos
You’ve heard it said about someone, “You could sell ice creams to Eskimos,” which is a tribute to a person’s gift of persuasion.

Bill on Hotdogs
Bill Gates was once asked about his drive to make Microsoft what it is today. The interviewer said:

“With your insatiable drive to succeed, it has been said that you would've been successful even if you were selling hotdogs.”

Bill responded:

“No, I don't think so. I'm not sure that I could sit in a room for sixteen hours straight talking about hotdogs like I do about the possibilities of new technology.”

Tapping Into Your Passion
One of the key things about entrepreneurs and others that have invested their talents wisely is this common denominator: they have all tapped into their passion and later their lives were defined by it.

Source
Sakiya Sandifer, Believe That You Can Do Anything…But Know Your Limitations, Huffington Post, 7 August 2009.

Check it Out
Check out the new site America’s Cup in the UAE.

Topics on Sister Sites to Stories for Speakers and Writers
Is a Marriage Campaign the Best way to Preserve Emirati Identity? Experiencing the Emirates.
Visit Al Bidya Mosque—The Oldest Worship Place in the Emirates, Fujairah in Focus.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: A young William Gates lying down among his passion.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Ponder Pablo Picasso When Achievement Seems So Long in Coming

Picasso Principle
Sean D’Souza recently published this story that he calls the Picasso principle.

It caught my attention because I read it while living in Barcelona, where Picasso did much of his painting, and soon after visiting the Picasso Museum.

Sean writes:

There’s a story (true or false, I don’t know) about the famous artist, Pablo Picasso.

It seems a woman came up to him and asked him to sketch something on a piece of paper.

He sketched it, and gave it back to her saying: “That will cost you $10,000.”

She was astounded. “You took just five minutes to do the sketch,” she said. Isn’t $10,000 a lot for five minutes work?

“The sketch may have taken me five minutes, but the learning took me 30 years,” Picasso retorted.

Sean goes on to write about the long hard work that goes into becoming successful at your craft and how this needs to be reflected in calculating the value and cost of our services.

Postscript from Picasso Museum
The Picasso Museum in Barcelona is designed in stages from his early work to his last. It is a great gallery but a little disappointing that many of his well known paintings are not there as they are displayed in cities such as London, Paris New York and Madrid.

What intrigued me was Picasso's vast output. It took him years, thousands of sketches and drawings, much experimentation, efforts that are nothing to write home about and collaboration with other painters to produce the art work that he has become known for—those paintings that are worth millions.

This is worth remembering when excellence seems a long time coming.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Nude Woman with Necklace ("Femme nue au collier") by Pablo Picasso, Tate Gallery, (1968).

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Henri Nouwen on Staying Alive When Nobody Is Waiting for You

Philip Yancey says that Henri Nouwen’s slim book with the wonderful title, The Wounded Healer, describes the lonely, abandoned people who have no one to love them.

Nouwen tells of a young minister who has nothing to offer an old man facing surgery, except his own loving concern.

“No man can stay alive when nobody is waiting for him,” writes Nouwen.

“Everyone who returns from a long and difficult trip is looking for someone waiting for him at the station or the airport. Everyone wants to tell his story and share his moments of pain and exhilaration with someone who stayed home, waiting for him to come back.”

Sources
Philip Yancey, Church: Why Bother? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998, 78.
Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer, Darton,Longman & Todd Ltd.

Related
Henri Nouwen: The Wounded Healer, SFS.
Henri Nouwen: Gift of a Free Space, SFS.
Wanting a Real Blessing, SFS.
Holy Earthiness, SFS.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “Everyone who returns from a long and difficult trip is looking for someone waiting for him at the station or the airport.”

Monday, August 03, 2009

Lessons from The Secret Life of Bees

Roy Petitfils (counsellor, speaker and author), told me he was using this quote from the movie "The Secret Life of Bees" in his work this year with students and teachers.

He said, “The teachers are framing it and putting it on their desks.” Here it is:

“Bee yard etiquette: ... the world is really one big bee yard, and the same rules work fine in both places: Don't be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don't be an idiot; wear long sleeves and long pants. Don't swat. Don't even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates, while whistling melts a bee's temper. Act like you know what you're doing, even if you don't. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.”

Source: Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees (Penguin Books), 2002.

Link to Roy’s blog which is a treasury of useful and inspiring stories like this one, this beauty and a third for good measure.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “The world is really one big bee yard.”

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Albert Schweitzer on Practicing Love

Frederick Franck went to work as a dentist with Albert Schweitzer in Lambarene for several months, after which he wrote a book on his days with the great man. Here is an excerpt:

“Here was the extraordinarily gifted son of a small-town Lutheran pastor who has developed his immense potentialities to their utmost limit—as a revolutionary theologian, as a profound, yet practical philosopher, and as a great organist and musicologist who by the age of thirty had written a definitive study of Johann Sebastian Bach.”

“Then, suddenly, he gave up an uncommon multiplicity of brilliant careers, resigned from his professorate at the University of Strasbourg and decided to study medicine. This decision came after reading a plea from the Paris Mission Society for help in Equatorial Africa, where the people were in desperate need of a medical service that was totally lacking.”

“Becoming a doctor, he reflected, would enable him to ‘work without having to talk. For years now I have been giving of myself in words, but in this new commitment, I’ll not be a talker about the ‘Religion of Love’, but one who puts it into practice.’”

“Schweitzer gained notoriety as the unorthodox author of ‘The Quest for the Historical Jesus’ (1910) which shocked both liberal and conservative Protestants. Nonetheless, its concept of a ‘Religion of Love’ laid the foundation for the exceptional medical missionary he was to become. As the price for cooperation from the Paris Mission Society, Schweitzer had to accept its condition that he would neither preach nor officiate. In my understanding, this was precisely in line with Schweitzer’s intention.”

“He became the atypical missionary, who, in his fifty years of medical practice in the jungle, did not convert a single one of the ‘heathens’ he took care of day and night. He simply wanted to be a loving witness to the ‘Religion of Love’, render a limitless service of love and compassion in the spirit of its founder, and be a Christic presence, rather than a denominational ‘Christian’, in the heart of darkness and human suffering.”

Source
Frederick Franck, My Days with Albert Schweitzer (Unionville, New York: Royal Fireworks Press, 1959), xi-xii.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Albert Schweitzer practicing love.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Tailgating, Road Rage and High Ethics

A man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard.

Suddenly, the light turned yellow just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he probably could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection. As she was in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the `Choose Life' license plate holder, the `What would Jesus do?' bumper sticker, and the `Follow me to Sunday School,' bumper sticker on the other side, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."

Source
Dr. Howard K. Batson, ‘Above and Beyond’, Ethics Daily, 15 June 2008.

Related
UAE: The Tailgating Capital of the World, ETE.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Getting too close by tailgating.