A Real Good Thing

[Tom Winship]

My wife and I went to Queen Wilhelmena State Park in southwestern Arkansas last week for a couple of days. Tuesday we were traveling west on the parkway taking in the scenery. We had stopped at several turnouts restrooms, etc. We had driven about 50 miles when she said she had lost her rings. Long story short, we backtracked the 50 miles, stopping at every place we had stopped previously. (She knew she had a bad habit of taking her rings off, placing them in her lap, and putting lotion on her hands. She felt sure she had gotten out of the car and dropped them.) Sure enough, we pulled into about the 10th place we had stopped previously, in the same parking spot and she looked out the window and they were on the ground. A lot of people had to have walked right by them and not seen them.

What are the odds of that happening?

[Todd Leback]

I don't know, but you figure with 7 billion people on the planet it is bound to happen sooner or later. My view is, people always comment whenever something like this happens, but never about the thousands or even millions of times a day something is lost and never found. It is like when people talk about the miracle of birth. I don't think something that happens millions of times a day, by a large number of the species on earth, qualifies as miraculous.

Todd

[Jim Rimmer]

Despite Todd's rather harsh comment, I find it quite an interesting event. Given the time it took you to backtrack and no one had picked them up. it does seem kind of miraculous.

[ray hampton]

I stop at a gas station a number of years ago and when I got ready to drive away , I offer to drive a elderly man that were walking home, he start to get in the car but told me to wait a minute and he walk about twenty five feet to pick up a quarter that he saw,I am GLAD that your day was happy

[Todd Leback]

I wasn't trying to be harsh, simply pointing out that ascribing supernatural causes to chance events is not necessarily the best answer. I mean, everyone has stories of unlikely events happening to them, regardless of faith traditions or beliefs. For example, my wife and I were in South Africa in the little town of Bushman's River Mouth (her parents live there), pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We go into the post office/general store one morning and as we are leaving a couple stops us and asks my wife "do you teach at the Tandem Friends school (she was wearing a TFS shirt)?". Turns out the couple was also from Charlottesville. Not only that, but the wife was Dave Matthews cousin. What are the chances of that happening? Pretty remote, but not that bad, statistically speaking. Do I believe there was some intelligent force behind that chance meeting? No, not in the least.

[Robert McGowen]

The rings obviously meant a lot to your wife and I am glad that she got them back. I think that it is more miraculous that you were patient enough to backtrack 50 miles and make numerous stops on the off chance that you would find them! .... and if there were 100 people on a ship and it sank and I was the only survivor, the odds would only be 1 out of 100 that I lived, but I personally would think that it was miraculous whether or not any else did.

[Stephen Tashiro]

In the late 1980's, I was still driving a 1979 Toyota Corolla. One morning I made my usual 40 mile drive up Highway 70 to White Sands Missile Range and turned off at the ramp to the access road for the main post. The car suddenly lost power. I noticed the gas gauge read empty, which didn't make sense. As I came down the ramp the engine died. I rolled onto the shoulder of the road and stopped. The car wouldn't restart.

I got out and opened the hood. This was a purely symbolic gesture since, at that time, I didn't work on cars and all I could have done was wiggle the battery cables. Morning traffic was heading for the base so it wasn't surprising that a car pulled up behind me. It was slightly surprising that the car was a Toyota Corolla which was within plus or minus a year or two of mine.

A man got up and walked up to me. "What's wrong?" he said.

"I don't know," I said. "I was coming down the ramp and I lost power. The gas gauge showed empty but I know I had half a tank."

He looked into the engine compartment for a few seconds. He said "I know. I bet I know. There's bolt that gets loose and falls out. Then you loose all your gas. Yes! See? Right there."

I looked without comprehension at what he was pointing to. It must have been an empty bolt hole in the plumbing around the carburetor. I figured that I'd need a tow.

He said, "When it falls out, it usually falls right down there.". He leaned over and looked down into the the engine compartment. "Yes! There it is!", he said. He reached way down and when his hand came up he was holding a bolt. He said "I'll put it back in and you'll be OK."

I said, "I'll have to get a ride to the base and bring back some gas."

He said, "Oh, no, no. I'll siphon a little gas out of my car. It'll be enough to get you there."

He walked back to his car. I didn't see exactly how he siphoned gas out his tank but it only took him a few minutes. (That impressed me as much as his finding the bolt.) He poured a little bottle of gas into my tank.

I said "You're a mechanical genius!"

He said, "I love these little cars."

I was able to drive to gas station on post. I wasn't late for work. The car didn't need further repairs.

[Jerome Stanek]

back in the 70's my wife and I went to a mall to shop and when she got out she dropped her new glasses. we came back about 1 hour latter and went home that night she went to put her glasses on and couldn't find them I said maybe you left them at a store in the mall so we went back and parked in a spot about 3 cars from where we parked earlier and as I was getting out I say them on the ground no one ran them over or stepped on them they had to be there 10 hours.

[Belinda Barfield]

Tom, I am so glad the rings were found. I applaud your patience in backtracking.

[Tom Winship]

Belinda, thanks. One attribute that you really have to work on when you get older is patience. You can't do things as fast, people don't do things the way you would, etc. Five years ago, and working, I was really impatient. I never really got upset last week, as I knew it would turn out okay. I had actually been thinking about getting her new rings, but after 49 years, she likes those. Glad we found them.

[Rick Potter]

Glad you found them Tom,

No mountains were moved, but if that happened to my wife, we would consider it a minor miracle too. After 47 years with the same set, she would have been devastated.

Rick Potter

[Tom Winship]

That was part of it, Rick. We will make 49 with the same set in December.

[Derek Gilmer]

I don't know, but you figure with 7 billion people on the planet it is bound to happen sooner or later. My view is, people always comment whenever something like this happens, but never about the thousands or even millions of times a day something is lost and never found. It is like when people talk about the miracle of birth. I don't think something that happens millions of times a day, by a large number of the species on earth, qualifies as miraculous.

Todd

Do you have kids? Having just had our first 8 months ago it makes me sad for you that you can't see birth as a miracle/amazing event. It may be common but it is still the most incredible thing I've ever been a part of.

[Paul McGaha]

Glad you guys found them Tom. Sure they mean a lot to both of you.

PHM

[Charlie Jones]

I am glad you found the rings. I believe that the fact we exist is a miracle!

[Stephen Tashiro]

a couple stops us and asks my wife "do you teach at the Tandem Friends school ?"

And Just to reinforce your point, so did I. My t-shirt doesn't have the "Friends" on it.

[Brian Kent]

"It's a God thing" is just fine with me. And the miracle includes good memory, patience, the willingness to backtrack, good eyesight…"

[Tom Winship]

Is it my imagination or did the title of my thread get changed?

[Belinda Barfield]

Is it my imagination or did the title of my thread get changed?

If it's your imagination then we are sharing a reality. It was definitely changed.

[Tom Winship]

If it's you imagination then we are sharing a reality. It was definitely changed.

Thanks Belinda, at my age I thought I had mis-typed. They need to change Brian Kent's also.

[Belinda Barfield]

Thanks Belinda, at my age I thought I had mis-typed. They need to change Brian Kent's also.

Tom, possibly one of the mods just thought it was a typo and changed it. I hope that's the case, and not that they thought the title inappropriate in some way. :(

[ray hampton]

I not surprised that God is GOOD

[Trevor Howard]

Glad you found her rings Tom, time to make her a Ring Holder or two for the car ;)

[Myk Rian]

Is it my imagination or did the title of my thread get changed?
Just the usual hijacking.