Wednesday Wisdom - Who Packs Your Parachute?

Who Packs Your Parachute?

My uncle Ray was a hero to me. He was one of those guys with just a high school education, working in a meat packing plant his whole life, yet still accomplished more than many in his lifetime. He survived a motorcycle crash when a drunk driver took him out, and he walked with a painfully severe limp the rest of his life – but it never seemed to stop him from enjoying life. He kept riding motorcycles. He became an accomplished pilot, frequently flying his plane from Illinois to Florida, navigating by following the East Coast Railway south, and then buzzing our house to let us know he was in town. He was a craftsman, able to do just about anything with his hands, I can remember him making intricate rings out of $20 bills and leaving them as tips for waitresses.  Wherever he traveled, he always had a smile and a kind word or witty joke for every person he met – and nobody was a stranger to him. Some of the best advice, words of encouragement, and examples of how to treat people I ever received, came from Uncle Ray - even though my visits with him were few and far between over the years. After he died I learned that he had survived the attack on Pearl Harbor while serving in the military as a parachute packer – one of those mundane jobs most people (except maybe skydivers) give little thought to - which reminded me of the following story about another guy who made a really big difference in someone’s life:

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience!
One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"
"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.
"I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."
Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor." Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.


Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory - he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.
Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes.

So, who packs you parachute every day? Have you thanked them lately? And whose parachute are you packing in return, through words of encouragement, sound advice, and examples of leadership?