FINDING SURPRISES

Blue cone building - “Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true”

Have you noticed how life is full of surprises? A sailor tried to find a new trade route to China and stumbled upon a new (to him) continent. Alexander Fleming inadvertently left a culture dish on a window sill and discovered penicillin. Another scientist discovered saccharin when he noticed a strange, sugary taste in his sandwich.

According to a story from UNCLE JOHN'S ULTIMATE BATHROOM READER (The Bathroom Readers' Institute Bathroom Readers' Press, 1996), in 1989, an unidentified "middle-aged financial analyst from Philadelphia" paid four dollars for a painting at a flea market. He didn't even like the painting -- it was the frame he wanted. So he took the picture apart...and when he did, a copy of the US Declaration of Independence fell out. It was folded up, about the size of a business envelope. He thought it might be an early 19th-century printing and worth keeping as a curiosity.

A few years later, the man showed the print to a friend, who suspected it might be valuable and encouraged him to look into it. He did, and learned that only hours after finishing work on the Declaration in 1776, the Continental Congress had delivered the handwritten draft to a printer with orders to send copies of the Declaration to "the several Assemblies, Conventions & Committees and the Commanding Officers of the Continental troops, that it be proclaimed in each of the United States & at the head of the Army."

This was one of those original copies. No one is sure how many were printed that night; today only 24 survive, and most are in poor condition. But the one in the picture frame was in excellent shape, having spent the better part of two centuries undisturbed. In 1991, it sold at auction for $2.4 million.

Life is full of surprises! But most surprises are not nearly as dramatic as these. The unexpected occurs every day...random kindness from a stranger; a tragic accident is narrowly avoided; sickness unexpectedly healed.

There is a surprise hidden in every day. It may be disguised as a mere coincidence, but those who look will find it.

It's an exciting way to live!

From Lifesupport.