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Times of honor, courage, singular moments & impossible feats.

Thinking about these types of things brings to mind the existence, or not, of a " Multiverse". Every second of every day 9 billion humans make decisions that affect the course of lives, theirs and others. The timeline they are in at those moments is forever altered by each decision. The timeline going forward would have looked different had they made a different decision and every downstream event would be further altered. Do THOSE timelines exist? Is this what Deja-Vu is? Our vestigial consciousness of events in a parallel timeline? The feeling of " Having done that, or experienced that", before?
How about if the comets/asteroids had NOT hit the planet around 12,500 BC and the great flood and subsequent Ice Age not happened? What would our world look like today?
What if we had not cracked the Enigma Code in WW2? If the Germans had learned of the D Day plans in advance? So much of what we know as "The Future" rests on ordinary acts of random people. Our existence is so dependent upon forces that we cannot control.
Damn, Rod Serling, I thought you were dead. :)

Correct, we ain't steering this ship. He is. :thumbsup:
 
I had a 'singular moment' back in 1989. I had just survived Hurricane Hugo. What a monster storm that was! I lived on Wadmalaw Island at the time. This island was then a farming community, many vegetables were grown there commercially, lots of 'truck farms'. I lived on the backside of a huge veggie farm along an intercoastal waterway. Many of the farms and residences were the same, with LONG driveways through farmland and homes at the rear of the property. After the storm had passed and we began the cleanup there were many people trapped on their property. There were thousands of trees down across access roads and driveways and no way to get to folks short of a chopper. The fellow who owned the veggie farm behind which I lived gave me permission to operate his giant farm tractors. I used them to drag trees away and cross ruined land more easily. These were huge all-wheel drive tractors that towed 50-foot-wide harrows across fields. There was a day where I, and a slapped together crew of neighbors and utter strangers were trying to clear a driveway that was nearly a half mile long and choked with debris and trees. Suddenly there appeared behind us an ambulance trying to come up the road. The driver ran up to me and jumped up and shouted that the elderly woman who lived there had had an accident and was badly injured, and could I possibly get through the debris and trees with the tractor? I looked at the mess and replied that I really didn't know but that I was willing to try. He came back in a jiffy with cases and an EMT dude and climbed aboard. We went four wheeling. It was touch and go and I almost got stuck several times. What a ride. We got in there, we were banged up from jouncing around in the cab, but the EMT was able to stabilize her and call for an evac by air. I began to clear the drive from the other end and we got it open in no time.
Days later an old man showed up on my property and shouted outside my tent. " Anybody home?"
I went out and he burst into tears. Hugged me while whimpering. I was like. "Who is this cat?"
He collected himself and told me that he was the lady's husband, who had not been at home when she injured herself. He said that the doctor told him she would have not made it had she been not gotten help when she did. He maintained that she. and he, owed her life to me. He went on to say they had been married since 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked. He was a WW2 vet, and she had been a USO girl. They had 9 children and 23 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. He said that so many lives would of been irreversibly changed had I not done what I did. I thanked him for saying so but told him that it was pure chance that I was there that day and, in a position, to help. I was supposed to be at another location entirely.
He asked me how it was going for me after the Hurricane and why was I living in a tent?
I told him that my entire house had blown away along with every tree on the property and all of the water out of my one-acre pond and the cement dock too. I had lost everything.
He looked at me in wonder and said, " All of that tragedy and you still go out every day and work yourself into the ground helping strangers? Son.....you were born in the wrong generation. I'm proud to have met you."
The next day a truck showed up out of the blue towing an "Airstream " travel trailer. There was a note on the door telling me that they had sent it for my use for as long as I needed it and that the thing was stocked with food and water. Great old couple. They don't make them like that anymore.
It was a singular moment for me that I will always remember. It renewed my faith in my fellow man.
Damn, bro...
applause.gif


Said it before, I'll say it again:
The world needs a bunch more just like you.
Clone? :)
 
Thanks, but this isn't a thread so that I can get applause..lol. I'm just trying to 'seed the clouds; as it were, to instigate others to share their stories. The more we hear from others the more we all realize that we are the same and, in that sameness, lies comfort and sanity. This world has become so impersonal, nobody talks to each other anymore, no stories are passed down, no sharing of real stuff between brothers and sisters. We humans have a need to share our stories, it's a part of what makes us tick. We need more of this, not less.
 
Oh man, even tho I didn't see combat while in the military, the military was like being in a 'small war' of sorts and that's what many of us called it.....even guys that had been in combat zones said the same thing. We were all in 'a war' of some kind starting with basic training and I have to admit, basic wasn't all that bad to me even though many thought it was and I was in the AF!! Geez. Move your *** through the mine field and I won't punch your dumb *** in the *** to make you move so I'll quit hearing the charges go off! lol.
So many things happen in the normal course of military life. Basic is a place where you are broken down and remolded into a useful member of a larger group so by its very nature basic is an event that sticks with the ones who go through it.

Thought my shop was going to go up in flames one day when a car I was working on caught fire under the carport that was out back of my shop. Just as I was starting to lose hope and call the fire department, I got things under control....
We are hard wired to be scared of fire in any form, and really scared when it endangers us in any way.


This reminds me of a stoopidvisor at a steel mill where I worked right after getting out of the military that was like the Major you mentioned. He was chewing out my butt for little of nothing and another employee was coming up behind him with a shovel. This guy was a total tyrant but when this guy with the shovel came up, I glanced over the tyrant's shoulder and he picked up on it and moved to the side. No shovel swing and I'm glad of that because I didn't want to be a part of that. I knew the guy with the shovel and he said he was only trying to scare him and well, he did that! Scared me too. On the other hand, the tyrant calmed down a bit.
Those sort of people pop up regularly everywhere, I too have had to deal with several.
Well, I think my life has been.....not bad :D And feel blessed.
I'm glad for you my friend.


Depends on how the car is used. Fatal 'accident' or something that was done with malice......?
 
Take the movies, for instance, and how they use central themes to appeal to the average viewer. Themes like heroism, selflessness, humility, sacrifice.
Also they use the mirrors of those like evil, selfishness, cowardice, self serving acts.
They draw from real life accounts that display these traits and weave the story around them because we, as a species, will respond to them, positively and negatively. It gets our attention and makes us think, makes us recall the times in our lives when these issues popped up. It makes us talk about it between ourselves, especially if the movie was really good and well liked.
The movie " Die Hard": for instance. It's a pop culture icon and is referred to endlessly. Why? Because it resonates with us on a deeper level.
 
I have four brothers......and a sister.
I have one sister and she's a tyrant! She's 4 years older and has been a tyrant to me all of my life.....and she didn't get along with dad either. He quit schoot in the 9th grade to work and help out at home and I think she enjoyed putting herself 'above' him as she made good grades and even had some college. She was as smooth as chocolate pudding to everyone else else though.....and I finally had to block her out of my life in order to maintain some sanity as she's flat out impossible to get along with.
 
I talk a lot and things are easier now, but when you're on the bottom rung of the ladder, there's only one way to go.
Cranky, I get it, had a few in life that were just added weight to an already heavy load. If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem.
 
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