Our friend, Cathy, has walked to get around most of her life, but recently she started floating. She's got this glow. She's got a new bounce in her voice when she answers the phone. She's got a new confidence. Cathy's more alive than we've ever seen her. Now what magic could bring about all these wonders? If you haven't guessed by now, you have been away too long. She's in love! She's in her twenties, and this is her first really big romance. It might be her life-long romance, and it's pretty exciting to watch.
Think about you in seventh grade. You say, "I'd rather not." Well, think about you. I mean, what a hunk, right? Miss America! Probably not. Our daughter had a funny experience in her senior French class in high school. There was some down time, and some girls were comparing their wallet pictures, including our daughter. She had out her senior picture and her seventh grade picture, and she put them right next to each other. The teacher asked what everybody was laughing at. Well, our daughter's always had a beautiful smile, but I have to tell you, in seventh grade it was decorated with braces, she had glasses, her hair was kind of kinky and curly and all pulled back, and she looked like a seventh grader. Well, her French teacher looked at that particular picture of our daughter, the seventh grade version that is, and then to the very beautiful senior in her graduation picture: no glasses, long hair, carefully curled hair, big blue eyes unconcealed by glasses. That teacher had a simple two-word reaction, (French teacher, of course) "La Miracle!" Well, "The miracle?" Our daughter could laugh with her friends; she could laugh with her teacher at that old seventh grade picture. Hey, it wasn't her anymore.
Few people captured the American imagination like America's first astronauts. That's why, for many of us, names like John Glenn are on a list of 20th Century heroes. John Glenn was, of course, one of the first men to ride a rocket into space. Then, years later, as a "senior citizen" he amazed the world by doing it again. So when John Glenn gives advice to today's space shuttle astronauts, he's got credentials! I love what he is reported to have told the Columbia astronauts before what turned out to be their last flight. He said, "Hey, don't forget to look out the window!"
We were crossing a long bridge across the Arkansas River. Now, the bridge was long because the river was wide. My wife made an interesting comment about the river. She said, "Now, we've seen how it got that way." Wide, she meant. Actually, we've seen the Arkansas at its headwaters where it's a very unimpressive little stream. And as we've driven across the western United States, we've seen many creeks and streams that feed into the Arkansas, taking her from being a dinky little stream into a wide and mighty river.
Now, it can't be good news when a lifeguard yells, "Everybody out of the water!" He did that day I was in the water at the Jersey Shore. My first thought was "Jaws!" Since I didn't have my shark repellent that day, I got out very quickly. But sharks weren't the problem. Drowning kids were. These three kids were too close to a jetty, it was high tide, and the kids were in big trouble. And so, the lifeguard cleared the water, and then a bunch of lifeguards plunged into the surf. Some were swimming, some were rowing. Hundreds of people were lined up along the beach watching this life or death drama. Now the beach patrol guys got there before these kids disappeared, and it's a good thing. There was no way those kids were going to be able to swim their way out of this. They were rescued, but they didn't contribute a thing to being saved.
Jessica's all grown up now. She almost didn't make it past 18 months. You may remember when, as a curious toddler, little Jessica fell down a deep shaft in her aunt's backyard in Midland, Texas. That shaft was far too narrow for any rescuer to go down, and she was wedged in a position that virtually immobilized her. If you remember that incident, it's because we all watched the drama unfold on television for three nerve-wracking days. By the time it was over, Jessica was America's little girl! When the rescuers realized there was no easy way, no conventional way to save little Jessica, they devised a whole new way of getting it done: by digging a wider shaft parallel to the one she was trapped in, and then a tunnel connecting those two shafts. That's pretty ingenious! Finally, a rescuer was lowered into that second shaft. Minutes later, we all smiled and cheered as the rescuer emerged from that shaft with an armful of Jessica, holding onto him for dear life.
If you're a parent, you'll understand this. There are those times when you just wish you could trade places with your child because of the pain they're going through. Our 12-year-old son had been playing a pickup football game with some of his friends when a tackle caused him to break his arm. I mean, really break his arm. The fracture was so severe that his arm bone bulged out grotesquely, his hand was limp, and he was really, really hurting. The doctor met us in the emergency room and he went to work trying to reset this arm that was broken in several places. Our son was very tough, but it was obvious that he was in excruciating—I think almost unbearable—pain. He's pretty sure he doesn't ever want to do that again.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition! They were that bold group of explorers that Thomas Jefferson sent to explore the largely uncharted Louisiana Purchase. The expedition, under the leadership of Captains Lewis and Clark, faced blazing heat and bone-chilling cold. They had some close calls with vicious animals, they were attacked by insects, they had the prospect of massacre by many Indian tribes whose land they were crossing, there were perilous passages, and even the death of one of their own. After a year and a half of paying a very high price, Captain William Clark stood one day in the bow of his boat, pointed west up the Columbia River, and shouted, "Ocean in view!" Later he wrote in his journal: "Ocean in view! O the joy! Great joy in camp! We are in view of the ocean, this great Pacific Ocean which we had been so long anxious to see!"
One of our new staff members just discovered the secret in our headquarters dining room. As she was carrying her lunch to the table, she bumped into this white pillar that stretches from floor to ceiling, and it moved. The look on her face was priceless! She wasn't quite sure what she had just done, or if she was about to cause the collapse of the room on top of all of us. But, see, that's the secret. The pillar looks real enough, but it's just decorative. It's made of plastic, and it doesn't hold up anything!
For a while, it seemed like it was just a head cold. But suddenly my wife's chest started to hurt, and a serious almost uncontrollable cough developed, and minor activity even made it hard to breathe. I had suggested she see a doctor earlier in the week, but she's about as good at taking those suggestions as I am. But eventually she got so miserable, she called for an appointment. "You've got pneumonia, girl!" That's what the doctor said after the chest x-ray. Sure enough, there was this dark stuff, camping out in her lung, causing all this trouble.
