Fw: (no subject)

---------------------- Forwarded by Eric Bass/HOU/ECT on 01/30/2001 12:05 PM
---------------------------

"Larry W. Bass" <lwbthemarine@bigplanet.com< on 01/30/2001 10:47:26 AM
To: KATHY BASS <daphneco64@bigplanet.com<, kb <daphneco64@yahoo.com<, jason
<jason.bass2@compaq.com<, eric preston bass <Eric.Bass@enron.com<
cc:
Subject: Fw: (no subject)

?
----- Original Message -----
From: SASORLAND@aol.com
To: UNCDONNY@aol.com ; connpop@erols.com ; ISDrummer1@aol.com ;
Carolimri@aol.com ; KQueenOfTheWorld@aol.com ; Joker2844@aol.com ;
Scam60@aol.com ; billandlynn25@juno.com ; Tanaraga_1999@yahoo.com ;
WEBBS162@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2001 2:32 PM
Subject: (no subject)

READ THIS. LET IT REALLY SINK IN.? THEN CHOOSE HOW YOU
START YOUR DAY.

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is
always in a good
mood
and
always has something positive to say.? When someone
would ask him how
he
was
doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would
be twins!"

He was a natural motivator.? If an employee was having
a bad day,
Michael
was there telling the employee how to look on the
positive side of the
situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I
went up to
Michael
and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a
positive person all of
the
time.
How do you do it?"

Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to
myself, you have
two
choices today.? You can choose to be in a good mood
or...you can choose?
to
be in a bad
mood.? I choose to be in a good mood.? Each time
something bad happens,
I
can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn
from it. I choose
to
learn from it.
Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can
choose to accept
their
complaining or...I can point out the positive side of
life. I choose
the
positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Michael said. "Life is all about
choices. When you cut
away
all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose
how you react to
situations. You choose how people affect your mood.
You choose to be in
a
good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your
choice how you live
your
life."

I reflected on what Michael said. Soon hereafter, I
left the Tower
Industry
to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often
thought about him
when
I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved
in a serious
accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications
tower.? After 18
hours
of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was
released from the
hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw Michael about six months after the accident.
When I asked him how
he
was, he replied. "If I were any better, I'd be twins.
Wanna see my
scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what
had gone through
his
mind as the accident took place. "The first thing that
went through my
mind
was the well-being of my soon to be born daughter, "
Michael replied.
"Then,
as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two
choices: I could
choose
to live or ...I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I
asked. Michael
continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept
telling me I was
going
to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I
saw the
expressions
on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really
scared.? In their
eyes,
I read "he's a dead man. I knew I needed to take
action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions
at me," said
Michael.
"She asked if I was allergic to anything. "Yes, I
replied." The doctors
and
nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I
took a deep
breath
and
yelled, "Gravity."

Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to
live. Operate on me
as
if I am alive, not dead."

Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but
also because of
his
amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we
have the choice
to
live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
"Therefore do not worry
about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about
yesterday.

You have two choices now:
1. Delete this.
2. Forward it to the people you care about.

You know the choice I made.