MountainWings - The Daily Inspirational E-Mail #1040
Helping You Over The Mountains of Life

Extraction #2

If you didn't read yesterday's MountainWings or are a new subscriber go to 
MountainWings.com, click Archives and read "Extraction".

So you now know how many good teeth you have.

Did you notice something?

For the vast majority, the number of good teeth FAR outnumbers the bad. 

You have far more good teeth but it's the bad teeth that get all of the attention. 
One bad tooth can cause us so much pain that we forget about all of the good.

So it is with life.

One bad relationship and we think all men/women are bad.

One bad experience with a member of a different race. religion or culture and we 
think all who are different from us are bad.

A company can have a thousand employees and we can have one bad 
experience with an obnoxious employee and we think the whole company is bad.

One bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch but it will eventually spoil the whole 
bunch if you don't remove the bad apple. Infection spreads.

Some things you have to extract to keep it from spoiling the whole bunch.

My son had to get his two front teeth extracted to prevent further pain and to 
even prevent the spread of infection to the rest of his body.

Extraction of things in our lives is often necessary but seldom pleasant.

He had to be sedated, strapped down, and numbed. He still hollered.

Eagles fly high but have you ever noticed eagles don't have a lot of stuff 
strapped on their backs. 

Some of us haven't reached the heights that we are destined to reach because 
we haven't extracted some things. It's too much on our backs and in our spirits.

You know what things they are.

As plain as I am writing this and as clear as you can see these letters, you know 
what things in your life need extracting. We all have them.

Extraction hurts but the continuing pain of decay hurts even worse and for much 
longer.

I counsel quite a few people. 

More often than not, they will have major problems by the time they schedule 
counseling. As I listen to their situation I can often see things or a different 
perspective on the thing that they cannot. Many are helped through counsel.

Even though I can often see things that they cannot, most of the stuff that they 
need to change, THEY ALREADY KNOW!

"I know I need to do this" "I know I need to change that" "I know this is wrong" 
"I know I shouldn't feel this way" "I know I should leave this relationship"
"I know this is not good" "I know I should. . . "

Many already know the things in their life that need to be extracted.

So do you.

The problem is not the knowledge in many instances. It's the pain of extraction.

Pulling anything with deep roots is a problem. 

The closer anyone is to the child and the further they are from maturity, the 
more sedation, straps and numbing they will need. A child will even endure the 
paid for months or years until the tooth eventually falls out from the decay.

Often we endure the pain far longer than necessary until it falls out and has 
nearly knocked us out. 

Learn the lesson of extraction.

For though we may have far more good teeth, this is a lesson we all need to 
know.

MountainWings is about helping lift you over the mountains of life. 
Sometimes what you need is not really a lift. You just need to remove some 
things.

Just as a hot air balloon is mired to the ground with sandbags often so are we.

It's not that we don't have the wind to fly, we've just got too many sandbags.

Some need to be extracted and then we can fly.
A MountainWings Original


Laugh for The Day: 
This is a different type of extraction but the story illustrates my point.

S.C. Anderson
PO Box 1302
Minnetonka, MN 55345 
Superior Health Insurance
ATTN: Claims Review
1423 W. 90th St.
New York, NY 05016 

Dear Sir: 

This letter is in response to your recent letter requesting a more detailed 
explanation concerning my recent internment at Methodist Hospital. Specifically, 
you asked for an expansion in reference to Block 21(a)(3) of the claim form 
(reason for hospital visit). On the original form, I put "Stupidity". I realize now 
that this answer was somewhat vague and so I will attempt to more fully explain 
the circumstances leading up to my hospitalization. 

I had needed to use the restroom and had just finished a quick bite to eat at the 
local burger joint. I entered the bathroom, took care of my business, and just 
prior to the moment in which I had planned to raise my trousers, the locked case 
that prevents theft of the toilet paper in such places came undone and, feeling it 
striking my knee, unthinkingly, I immediately, and with unnecessary force, 
returned the lid back to its normal position. 

Unfortunately, as I did this I also turned and certain parts of my body, which 
were still exposed, were trapped between the device's lid and its main body. 
Feeling such intense and immediate pain caused me to jump back. It quickly 
came to my attention that, when one's privates are firmly attached to an 
unmovable object, it is not a good idea to jump in the opposite direction. 

Upon recovering some of my senses, I attempted to reopen the lid. However, 
my slamming of it had been sufficient to allow the locking mechanism to engage. 
I then proceeded to get a hold on my pants and subsequently removed my keys 
from them. I intended to try to force the lock of the device open with one of my 
keys; thus extracting myself. 

Unfortunately, when I attempted this, my key broke in the lock. Embarrassment 
of someone seeing me in this unique position became a minor concern, and I 
began to call for help in as much of a calm and rational manner as I could. An 
employee from the restaurant quickly arrived and decided that this was a 
problem requiring the attention of the store manager. 

Betty, the manager, came quickly. She attempted to unlock the device with her 
keys. Since I had broken my key off in the device, she could not get her key in. 
Seeing no other solution, she called the EMS (as indicated on your form in block 
21(b)(1)). 

After approximately 15 minutes, the EMS arrived, along with two police officers, 
a fire-rescue squad, and the channel 4 "On-the-Spot" news team. The guys from 
the fire department quickly took charge as this was obviously a rescue operation. 

The senior member of the team discovered that the device was attached with 
bolts to the cement wall that could only be reached once the device was 
unlocked. His discovery was by means of tearing apart the device located in the 
stall next to the one that I was in. (Since the value of the property destroyed in 
his examination was less than $50 (my deductible) I did not include it in my 
claim.) His partner, who seemed like an intelligent fellow at the time, came up 
with the idea of cutting the device from the wall with the propane torch that was 
in the rescue truck. 

The fireman went to his truck, retrieved the torch, and commenced to attempt to 
cut the device from the wall. Had I been in a state to think of such things, I 
might have realized that in cutting the device from the wall several things would 
also inevitably happen. First, the air inside of the device would quickly heat up, 
causing items inside the device to suffer the same effects that are normally 
achieved by placing things in an oven. Second, the metal in the device is a good 
conductor of heat causing items that are in contact with the device to react as if 
thrown into a hot skillet. And, third, molten metal would shower the inside of 
the device as the torch cut through. 

The one bright note of the propane torch was that it did manage to cut, in the 
brief time that I allowed them to use it, a hole big enough for a small pry bar to 
be placed inside of the device. The EMS team then loaded me, along with the 
device, into the waiting ambulance as stated on your form. 

Due the small area of your block 21(a)(3), I was unable to give a full explanation 
of these events, and thus used the word which I thought best described my 
actions that led to my hospitalization. 

Sincerely,
S. Anderson

Now that people, is an extraction.

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See you tomorrow.

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