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Hi –

Hope you’re having a great day!

… It’s not one of my favorite places to be.

The Sprint phone store.

But I was having trouble with my phone and needed to exchange it.

And as I was sitting and waiting for my name to be called?

I started thinking about all those electronic gadgets they want you to sell you.

How while some of them do enhance our lives?

We are paying a heavy price for them.

We’re always on our BlackBerry.  Always checking our e mails.  Constantly texting.

And how people hardly talk to each other.  And don’t write letters anymore.

Kids off in camp don’t even get letters from their moms.

They get a text message.

It’s just not the same!

And when’s the last time we’ve actually written a personal note?

“Thank you.  I’m sorry.  Thinking of you!”

Somehow we’ve lost some of our humanity.

…As I’m thinking of all this?

Something very interesting happened.

A fellow came into to the store asking for a pen.

(You may remember that people used to write with them!)

It seems that he may have damaged another car in the parking lot.

He wasn’t sure if the dent was there before or not.

So he wanted to leave a note on the car’s windshield with his phone number.

I said to myself, “Wow.

This fellow has not lost it!”

Then I hear the woman next to me talking to her teenage daughter.

“Did you see what he’s doing?  That’s the right thing to do!”

And I said to myself, “Wow.

She has not lost it!”

I turned to the teenage girl and told her…

“You are very fortunate to have such a mother! 

Never forget what she just told you!”

She smiled and said, “I won’t!”

And when the mother and daughter got up after their names were called?

The fellow who wrote the note came back in and sat down right next to me.

I said to him…

“What you just did was very special.  You restored my faith in humanity!

It looks like you were raised well!”

He smiled and said, “Thank you!  Yeah…

My folks are awesome!”

You know? I have this thing!

I like to make parents feel good about their kids.

I think it’s one of the most special things you can do.

So I said to him, “Do me a favor.  Tell you parents that you met a Rabbi today.

And the Rabbi said that they did a good job!”

He promised me that he would tell them.

(I forgot to tell him not to text them!)

… There’s a huge sign in the Sprint store.

“Discover Sprint.  See what makes us stand out from the other guys!

I can’t say that I discovered Sprint that day.

But I did discover a few other things.

What made that mother in the store stand out?

The lesson that she taught her daughter!

And what made that guy stand out?

Not the number of features on his iPhone.

But his simple hand written note!     

All the best,