Thought for the Day - July 27,00

Subject: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: Peter T.
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 10:20 AM

Slow Oceanic Internet Service:

A friend writes to me from England -- Dear Peter, I did something a year ago that you will disapprove of as an environmental bloke, but you might approve of as a dyed-in-the-wool romantic, which was to throw a plastic bottle into the ocean off Brazil (Recife, actually). I put a message in it with my phone number and the promise to pay 10 pounds to anyone who found it. Last week, it turned up. I got a call from an elderly gentleman on the Bay of Biscay, who seems to have been Basque or the equivalent. Anyway, he had phoned up his daughter who read English and she came down to his house and translated the message, and was on the line when he called. We chatted for a few minutes about oil spills (you would have been happy), and I took down their address, and am sending their postal order in this same batch of mail. Childish, really: but the best thing about it was that I had totally forgotten about it. What other things do we send out for the fun of it, and someday come back? yours, XXXXX

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: Susan from California
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 11:37 AM

What have I sent out? My 18 year old son! Has he come back--only with laundry and an appetite :-)

But seriously, isn't music something you send out for fun? When it comes back, it is even more fun!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: GUEST,emily b
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 12:04 PM

It's interesting that an empty bottle floating in the ocean will be considered trash while a bottle containing a written message will be considered treasure. The empty bottles actually contain their own message which most people just want to ignore.

I send out smiles. And many of them come back or get passed along.

I do love the romantic idea of the message in the bottle. I'm going to the coast of Maine in August. Maybe I'll find one...

Good thoughts for today. And smiles to everyone.

Emily

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 12:10 PM

I did that in 1983 off a sailboat about 40 miles southeast of St. Thomas.

Nothing.

Probably run down by an oil tanker. Such is my life.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 12:21 PM

Spaw,
Did you pee in the bottle? That might be the problem.

I am a firm believer in "As you sow, so ahall you reap." And so like Emily, I send out smiles, kind words and a helping hand. So far, they all come back one hundredfold. Occasionally, when provoked, I spit venom. That comes back too.
I have friends who send little messages on dollar bills. The return rate is 0.
Mary

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 12:34 PM

sORRY FOR THE TYPOS. bAD MORNING.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: Morticia
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 12:42 PM

just before I left university, a lecturer had us all write a letter to ourselves that she would post a year later. It was to contain all the things you hoped and wished for, in the coming year, all your thoughts , dreams and ambitions. It was a marvellous way of getting us to focus on what we had achieved and had still to achieve, and what the point of the previous years of books and poverty had been about. I had completely forgotten this until the letter turned up, a year later.It was wonderful to reflect on what I'd accomplished and make better plans for the things I still had to do and to remember who I was then and now. I wish I could thank her, it was one of the best things anyone has ever done for me.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: Mbo
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 12:51 PM

We have a sort-of tradition here. Every January, when we put away all the Christmas decoration, back into the 4 big boxes, we get out the Sharpie marker and write all sorts of stuff on the boxes. Dates, things we thought were funny, songs I liked at the time, bizarre little drawings courtesy of me, and silly rhymes. Then as late November (the day after Thanksgiving) of the next year hits, and the boxes come out once again, there are all our messages from the year before, as well as the ones before that. We now have 6 years worth of stuff written on the boxes. My favorite from 2 years ago? "I love "The Rain Song" by Led Zeppelin!"

--Matt

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 12:58 PM

Meebs me lad, that is a wonderful little tradition and I will steal it for my family if you don't mind. A very nice idea.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 01:25 PM

A wonderful tradition, Mbo. Every year, I buy or make a Christmas ornament reflecting my son's favorite things for the past year. His favorite - a tiny bear dressed in a hooded pullover, a "Breakdancing Bear" from when he was 8 years old. We relive past Christmases as each one comes out and finds its place on this year's tree.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - July 27,00
From: Kim C
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 12:58 PM

I have kept journals off and on for years, since I was a teenager. Sometime after I was married and moving stuff around, I came across my journal from the 10th grade, where I had written all the qualifications for the man I would someday marry. I realized Mister had met them all but two: he didn't have long hair, and he didn't have a British accent. But he did USED TO have long hair, back when he had hair! :)