At 05:23 PM 6/5/98 +0000, you wrote:
 
>Interesting how the product of another society is still so pleasant
>to a man like him who has by the looks of it rejected, or been
>rejected by society.
 
Wonderful uplifting story.....You should enjoy the feeling, the warm and
fuzzy's,  after such a humanitarian act....  Some would say you would have
2nd thoughts about a few in our society when returning to your hives a few
weeks later and finding every other honey comb removed and filled in by the
bees with wild comb.<G>
 
In any case its a fact that to give a gift to someone just because you can
see the need is much better then doing nothing and later feeling guilty
because you could have done something. I once had a chance as a younger man
to do that myself and closed my eyes and mind to anothers simple needs and
did nothing.
 
But I saw someone I did not know well give, and with no more wealth then I,
and he gained such great instant respect in my eyes over others who I knew
well who could have done something and did not, including myself, that I
have since become a giver or maybe to some a easy mark. I don't care as the
instant rewards of a giver are so much greater compared to the costs of not
giving I shall never change.
 
I now am a better person today because I give when I see the need even if
its only a cup of coffee or a meal to a transit just moving through our
small town. I have seen others call the police and have seen the police
harassment of the defenceless poor and sick and can only thank God that it
was not me but I always remember that no one knows what the future holds
for them and it could be me next time.
 
All this has nothing to do with keeping bees other then to know bee keepers
too have a heart like real people and I am sure many if not all of you are
also unconditional givers.
 
I am sure I have told this next story before but its worth repeating and
concerns a "gift" returned.
 
I was moving bees to the South Coast for the Sage and had pulled into a
local truck stop for dinner.
 
Just about the time I received my food a man came into the restaurant who
without a doubt was the ugliest man I have ever seen, then or since. Not
scare'ee ugly, just ugly ugly. At once all noticed he was dressed in an old
fashioned dark gray double brested suite and at once all realized he must
have been released from the many custodial homes that California once
maintained for the storage of human beings that if left in society would
stand out, and this guy sure qualified.
 
He sat down and ordered and all would have been normal if he had not given
all of us a "gift" I shall never forget even if at the time I may not have
recognized it or its value.
 
The gift.. This unbelievingly ugly man started to laugh, not the normal
giggle or laughter we normally hear or make, not the belly laugh one
sometimes is forced into by a funny story but the laughter of the insane.
 
So complete and infectious that as I looked around the room that was full
of people who looked like they were about to bust to keep themselves from
joining in....and soon a little giggle escaped from someone who just could
not hold it any longer and within seconds the whole place erupted with such
a force of uncontrollable laughter that if there were any crystal on the
shelves it surely would have burst. The relief expressed on the faces of
all was complete as was the man's "gift" which was nothing more then to
make a whole room full of people laugh and not one of them were laughing at
the man only with him.. Hard to believe we once locked up people with this
gift and at the same time made millionaires out of others who could not do
any better by speaking funny words or actions to do the same, make us
laugh.  The ugly man had a real gift and he shared it for free.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
 
Check out the BEE CAM page
 
http://beenet.com/bcam/swarm.htm
 
Try the Bee SPY-Cam (under construction)
 
Bee sure and see the Dead Drone at
"University of Montana Bee Cam"
and the nice Amazing Black Bee screen at
"USDA Bee Lab's Amazing Bee CAM"<BG>
 
 
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(w)OPINIONS are not necessarily facts. USE  AT OWN RISK!