If I Won The Lottery...

I've always thought that if I won the lottery, I would put some money aside to give away. The rules would be that anyone who asks for money would not get any--ever. I always hear stories of people who win the mega-lottery and then go broke fairly quickly, and hopefully that rule would take care of the people who glom onto those who win lotteries to stay away from me.

Then I'd look through the papers and internet sites and find people who are deserving of something, because they did a selfless act for someone else. I remember when the Minnesota Bridge collapsed, there was a youth counselor on a bus that fell toward the river, who rescued the camp kids on his bus and made certain that they were all okay before he got out, without knowing what danger he was in. A story the next day said that he couldn't afford college so he went to work as a counselor. So I thought my imaginary lottery fund if I had it at the time would be used to help him go to college.

I bring this up, because there are many people in the world who act selfishly a lot, or for their own good, and some on the celebrity level seek adulation and recognition along with praise for relatively minor things that they do, while others toil every day in relative anonymity for no recognition at all.

Then you have people like Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who gained fame last month for the incredible landing in the Hudson River, and miraculously losing no one in the process, due to the efforts and training of the crew and passengers.

It's probably been a whirlwind month for the guy, what with TV interviews, Super Bowl Appearances, and his humbleness has been incredible. But I became aware of a small story today, that speaks volumes about the good Captain. One of the casualties of the crash in the Hudson, was a book that Captain Sully had with him that was left behind. Presumably, the book is in the Hudson or at the NTSB where they are inspecting the plane to determine what happened. However the Captain had borrowed the book, and despite everything that has happened in the three weeks since the accident, the Captain took time out to personally make sure the borrowee was aware that they weren't going to get the book back. He didn't get some assistant to do it, he did it himself. He actually called the library he borrowed the book from, and let them know he couldn't return it. The library waived the fee. Good for them! If I had my lottery fund they would get some books funded by it.

But the best part of this story is that the book--although we don't know what the exact title is--was purportedly on Professional Ethics!

Here's Wishing Captain Sully much Gruntledness!