Who Is Packing Our Spiritual Parachute?

Charles "Chuck" Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam.After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by asurface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into aion account enemyhands. He was captured and spent six years in a communistVietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures onthe lessons he learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at anothertable came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters inVietnam from the Aircraft Carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shotdown!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "Ipacked your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped insurprise and aion money gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "Iguess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chutehadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleepthat night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I keptwondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: awhite hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonderhow many times I might have seen him and not even said, "Goodmorning, how are you?" or anything because, you see, I was afighter pilot and he was "just" a sailor." Plumb thought of themany hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden aion power leveling table in thebowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and foldingthe silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fateof someone he didn't know.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, wemiss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please,or thank you, to congratulate people on something wonderful thathas happened to them, to give a runescape power leveling compliment, or just to dosomething nice for no reason. As you go through this week, thismonth, and this year, recognize people who pack your parachutesand send them your gratitude.

Pakistan suicide bombing kills anti-Taliban mayor

A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday in a crowded market in aion gold northwestern Pakistan, killing an anti-Taliban mayor who had formed a militia to fight the militants and 11 other people, officials said.

A purported Taliban commander claimed responsibility for the bombing.

A Pakistani holds his baby girl, who was killed in a suicide bombing, as her grandmother mourns inside a van at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009. [Agencies]

The Taliban have carried out a series of attacks in recent weeks aimed at pressuring the government to aion kina abandon an offensive launched in mid-October in South Waziristan, the main Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuary in the country.

The bombing, in the town of Adazai, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the main northwestern city of Peshawar, killed the town's mayor, Abdul Malik, and 11 other people, including a young girl, said Sahibzada Anis, the top official in Peshawar.

The suicide bomber hit as shoppers thronged a market where aion kinah goats were being sold to celebrate the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid.

Twenty-five wounded people -- several in critical condition -- were rushed to a hospital, police officer Abdul Sattar Khan said.

Malik, who had once been a Taliban supporter, later switched sides and formed a local militia to help fight the militants.

"Malik had survived several attacks on his life in the recent past, since he turned against the militants," Anis said. "But today the militants have finally killed him."

"Our local fighters carried out this attack," the purported Taliban commander, who gave only one name, Omar, said by telephone from an undisclosed location. "He had set up a militia. He was supporting aion power leveling killings of our men. He was interfering in our matters." Omar, whose identity could not be confirmed, threatened to kill anyone who tried to create an anti-Taliban militia.

Khan Zamir was buying goats when the explosion ripped through the street.

"That place turned into hell where the dead and injured were lying everywhere, and blood and flesh were spread around," he said, adding that two of his relatives were badly wounded.

Pakistani security officials and media gather at the site of a suicide bombing in Adazai town near Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009. [Agencies]

"Now we have our blood in this war," he said, vowing revenge against the attackers.

Militants have struck repeatedly in Pakistan in recent weeks, killing more than 300 civilians and soldiers in attacks aimed at weakening the government's resolve to continue the South Waziristan operation.

Pakistani troops have fought gunbattles in and around key Taliban towns in the region for several days. The latest fighting Sunday in the Taliban heartland killed 20 militants and wounded eight soldiers, an army statement said.

The military says hundreds of militants have been killed in the fighting -- a claim the Taliban dismisses. The area is sealed, and the figures are impossible to verify.