OOPS: Staff Sgt. Dwayne P. R. Lewis, 26, of New York City, died in Baghdad, Iraq on Feb. 27, when his unit was attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire during a dismounted patrol.

One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah ben Yehoyada, his most
trusted minister. He said to him, "Benaiah, there is a certain ring
that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot which
gives you six months to find it."

"If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty," replied Benaiah, "I
will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?"

"It has magic powers," answered the king. "If a happy man looks at it,
he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy."
Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to
give his minister a little taste of humility.

Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he
could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a
walk in one of he poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a
merchant who had begun to set out the day's wares on a shabby carpet.
"Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy
wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his
sorrows?" asked Benaiah.

He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and
engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his
face broke out in a wide smile.

That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great
festivity. "Well, my friend," said Solomon, "have you found what I sent
you after?" All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled.

To everyone's surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared,
"Here it is, your majesty!" As soon as Solomon read the inscription,
the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written three Hebrew
letters on the gold band: _gimel, zayin, yud_, which began the words
"_Gam zeh ya'avor_" -- "This too shall pass."

At that moment Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth
and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be
nothing but dust.

You can lead a gift horse to water but you can't look him in the mouth.

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a
new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long
endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here
gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we
cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and
dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add
or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather
to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died
in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and
that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not
perish from the earth."


"woodarama" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah ben Yehoyada, his most
> trusted minister. He said to him, "Benaiah, there is a certain ring
> that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot which
> gives you six months to find it."
>
> "If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty," replied Benaiah, "I
> will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?"
>
> "It has magic powers," answered the king. "If a happy man looks at it,
> he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy."
> Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to
> give his minister a little taste of humility.
>
> Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he
> could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a
> walk in one of he poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a
> merchant who had begun to set out the day's wares on a shabby carpet.
> "Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy
> wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his
> sorrows?" asked Benaiah.
>
> He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and
> engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his
> face broke out in a wide smile.
>
> That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great
> festivity. "Well, my friend," said Solomon, "have you found what I sent
> you after?" All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled.
>
> To everyone's surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared,
> "Here it is, your majesty!" As soon as Solomon read the inscription,
> the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written three Hebrew
> letters on the gold band: _gimel, zayin, yud_, which began the words
> "_Gam zeh ya'avor_" -- "This too shall pass."
>
> At that moment Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth
> and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be
> nothing but dust.
>

A rolling stone gathers no moss