Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet fighter pilot in Viet Nam. After 75 missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb parachuted down into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. One day, Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant when a man from another table came up and said "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Viet Nam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. "I guess it worked". Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute  hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today." Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning. How are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was 'just a sailor'". Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds  and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know. Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes. Why didn't Plumb say hello to the sailor each time he passed him on the Kitty Hawk?
He thought the sailor was just an unimportant man. He didn't like him at that time. He was very busy then. He didn't know him well then.