The Cracked Pot

Thanks to Ramesh K G for this amazing article...

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A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."
"Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?" "I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."
Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without your being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.

The Moral of this Story: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what s/he is, and look for the good in them.
There is a lot of good out there.

" Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stonesout of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a fewmore upon it."

---Albert Schweitzer


Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the workbefore you, well assured that the right performance of this hour'sduties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that willfollow it.

---Ralph Waldo Emerson

My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be noman's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstaclebefore me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility;win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.

---Elaine Maxwell

No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged childrenfor signs of improvement.

Scott Maxwell

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able toremake the world ... as in being able to remake ourselves.

--Mahatma Gandhi

I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happinessor misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.

---Martha Washington

The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.

----Elain Heffner

Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future. In otherwords, if we're going to be more cheerful in the future, it's becauseof our aspiration and exertion to be cheerful in the present. What wedo accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.

---Pema Chodron

She was the archetypal selfless mother: living only for her children,sheltering them from the consequences of their actions -- and in theend doing them irreparable harm.

--Marcia Muller


If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishesfrom others without thinking evil of them.

---Mohandas K. Gandhi

We are all something, but none of us are everything.

--Blaise Pascal

Take time to accept responsibility. Your life is exactly that - It'syour life. It is created by you. You are constantly making choices,constantly creating new experiences. And although we an be affectedby circumstances which can seem to be completely out of our control.Essentially, we decide the direction in which we walk.

---Nicolas Watkins

To will is to select a goal, determine a course of action that willbring one to that goal, and then hold to that action till the goal isreached. The key is action.

---Michael Hanson

Instead of looking for a miracle in your life,look to see if you are the miracle in someone else's life.

----Nola Rohde Vollmer

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when weare feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it isonly in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likelyto step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways ortruer answers.

---M. Scott Peck


We should be careful and discriminating in all the advice we give. Weshould be especially careful in giving advice that we would not thinkof following ourselves. Most of all, we ought to avoid giving counselwhich we don't follow when it damages those who take us at our word.

----Adlai Stevenson

The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles,it distracts, it excites, it gives you the knowledge of the world andexperience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.

---Elizabeth Hardwick

The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at atime.

----Abraham Lincoln

Self-trust is the first secret of success.

---Ralph Waldo Emerson

The deepest human defeat suffered by human beings is constituted bythe difference between what one was capable of becoming and what onehas in fact become.

----Ashley Montagu

history of coffee making!!

xpresso MachinesIn 1822, the first espresso machine was made in France. In 1933, Dr.Ernest Illy invented the first automatic espresso machine. However,the modern-day espresso machine was created by Italian Achilles Gaggiain 1946. Gaggia invented a high pressure espresso machine by using aspring powered lever system. The first pump driven espresso machinewas produced in 1960 by the Faema company.Melitta BentzMelitta Bentz was a housewife from Dresden, Germany, who invented thefirst coffee filter. She was looking for a way to brew the perfect cupof coffee with none of the bitterness caused by overbrewing. MelittaBentz decided to invent a way to make a filtered coffee, pouringboiling water over ground coffee and having the liquid be filtered,removing any grinds.Melitta Bentz experimented with differentmaterials, until she found that her son's blotter paper used forschool worked best. She cut a round piece of blotting paper and put itin a metal cup.On June 20th, 1908, the coffee filter and filter paper were patented.On December 15th, 1908, Melitta Bentz and her husband Hugo started theMelitta Bentz Company. The next year they sold 1200 coffee filters atthe Leipziger fair in Germany. The Mellitta Bentz Company alsopatented the filter bag in 1937 and vacuumpacking in 1962.James MasonJames Mason invented the coffee percolator on December 26, 1865.Instant CoffeeIn 1901, just-add-hot water "instant" coffee was invented by JapaneseAmerican chemist Satori Kato of Chicago. In 1906, English chemistGeorge Constant Washington, invented the first mass-produced instantcoffee. Washington was living in Guatemala and at the time when heobserved dried coffee on his coffee carafe, after experimenting hecreated "Red E Coffee" - the brand name for his instant coffee firstmarketed in 1909. In 1938, Nescafe or freeze-dried coffee was invented.

History of tea

The most popular beverage in the world, tea was first drunk under theChinese Emperor Shen-Nung around 2737 B.C. An unknown Chinese inventorinvented the tea shredder, a small device that shredded tea leaves inpreparation for drinking. The tea shredder used a sharp wheel in thecenter of a ceramic or wooden pot that would slice the leaves intothin strips.The first tea bags were made from hand-sewn silk muslin bags and Ihave found tea bag patents of this sort dating as early as 1903. Firstappearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were successfullymarketed by tea and coffee shop merchant Thomas Sullivan of New York,who shipped his tea bags around the world. A machine was soon inventedto replace the hand sewing of tea bags.Also in 1904, iced tea was first reported to be served by EnglishmenRichard Blechynden at the St. Louis Fair, however, there is evidencethat the beverage was invented prior to that date.Thomas Lipton incorporated the Lipton Tea Company in 1915. Lipton Teapatented a novel four-sided tea bag in 1952 called the flo-thru tea bag.

chewing gum

By the early 20th century, Americans could not get enough of theconfection called chewing gum invented by Thomas Adams.

Timeline

* The ancient Greeks chewed mastiche - a chewing gum made from theresin of the mastic tree.
* The ancient Mayans chewed chicle which is the sap from thesapodilla tree.
* North American Indians chewed the sap from spruce trees andpassed the habit along to the settlers.
* Early American settlers made a chewing gum from spruce sap andbeeswax.
* In 1848, John B. Curtis made and sold the first commercialchewing gum called the State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.
* In 1850, Curtis started selling flavored paraffin gums becomingmore popular than spruce gums.
* On December 28 1869, William Finley Semple became the firstperson to patent a chewing gum - U.S patent #98,304.
* In 1869, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna introduced Thomas Adams tochicle.
* In 1871, Thomas Adams patented a machine for the manufacture of gum.
* In 1880, John Colgan invented a way to make chewing gum tastebetter for a longer period of time while being chewed.
* By 1888, an Adams' chewing gum called Tutti-Frutti became thefirst chew to be sold in a vending machine.

Ball Pen

"No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or morewise when he had" - Samuel Johnson.A Hungarian journalist named Laszlo Biro invented the first ballpointpen in 1938. Biro had noticed that the type of ink used in newspaperprinting dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge-free. Hedecided to create a pen using the same type of ink. The thicker inkwould not flow from a regular pen nib and Biro had to devise a newtype of point. He did so by fitting his pen with a tiny ball bearingin its tip. As the pen moved along the paper, the ball rotated pickingup ink from the ink cartridge and leaving it on the paper. Thisprinciple of the ballpoint pen actually dates back to an 1888 patentowned by John J. Loud for a product to mark leather. However, thispatent was commercially unexploited. Laszlo Biro first patented hispen in 1938, and applied for a fresh patent in Argentina on June 10,1943. (Laszlo Biro and his brother Georg Biro emigrated to Argentinain 1940.) The British Government bought the licensing rights to thispatent for the war effort. The British Royal Air Force needed a newtype of pen, one that would not leak at higher altitudes in fighterplanes as the fountain pen did. Their successful performance for theAir Force brought the Biro pens into the limelight. Laszlo Biro hadneglected to get a U.S. patent for his pen and so even with the endingof World War II, another battle was just beginning..

Festival of love celebrated February 15th, not 14th

Valentine's Day originates from the ancient Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on 15 February in honour of the gods Lupercus and Faunus, as well as the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. During the festival, young men would draw the names of women from a box, and each couple would be paired until next year's celebration. Often they would fall in love and marry.
At around 270AD Rome was facing battles and civil uprising. The men were not keen to join the army. Emperor Claudius II believed that the men did not want to leave their loved ones and summarily cancelled all marriages and engagements. Two priests, Valentine and Marius, disobeyed the decree and secretly performed marriage ceremonies. Valentine was caught on 14 February and dragged to jail. Later in the day he was clubbed to death and beheaded. It is said that, before his execution, Valentine himself had fallen in love with the jailer's daughter. He signed his final note to her, "From your Valentine."
Valentine's DayIn 391AD, Emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity as the official religion of the Rome. The fertility festival was celebrated until 496AD when Pope Gelasius replaced it with a similar celebration. For patron saint of the celebration, he chose the "lovers" saint, St Valentine. He also moved the date of the celebration from the 15 February to the date of St Valentine's death, 14 February. Through the centuries, Valentines Day became to be remembered more as the festival of love instead of a religious day. In 1969 it was dropped from the Roman Catholic calendar as a designated feast day.
CupidCupid has always played a role in the celebrations of love. Those whose hearts are pierced by his arrows fall deeply in love. In Greek mythology he was known as Eros, the young son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. To the Romans, he was Cupid, son of Venus. But where there's love, there often is jealousy. Venus was jealous of the beauty of Psyche, a mere mortal, and ordered Cupid to punish her (for being so beautiful). Instead, Cupid fell deeply in love and took her as his wife.
As a mortal Psyche was forbidden to look at him. Eventually, her sisters convinced her to look at the handsome Cupid. As punishment, Venus demanded that she perform three difficult tasks, the last of which caused Psyche's death. Cupid found her lifeless on the ground and removed the eternal sleep from her body. The gods, moved by their love, then granted Psyche immortality.
The symbol of Cupid became part of Valentines Day only recently. Cupid is still around shooting his arrows. Psyche represents the struggles of the human soul.
Happy Valentine's!Esther Howland, the woman who produced the first commercial American valentines in the 1840s, sold a then mind-boggling $5,000 in cards her first year of business. Today, over 1 billion valentine cards are sent in the US - second in number only to Christmas cards.

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