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The Famous Race of the Rabbit and the Tortoise - Version 2.0

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster.
They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race.

The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time.
Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under
a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under
the tree and soon fell asleep.

The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.

The hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race.

The moral- "Slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the
story that we've all grown up with."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

there are few more interesting things.....it continues as follows......

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching.

He realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax.
If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him.
So he challenged the tortoise to another race.

The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without
stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

The moral - " Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady.
It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no
way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted.

It thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but
on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping
with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and
ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a
couple of kilometres on the other side of the river.

The hare sat there wondering what to do.
In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral - "First identify your core competency, then change the playing field to suit your core competency."

THE STORY STILL HASN'T ENDED

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends
and they did some thinking together.

Both realized that the last race could have been run much better.
So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam
across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried
the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a
greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.

The moral - "It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations
at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person
with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The
hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure.
The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could."

In life, when faced with failure,
sometimes it is appropriate to work
harder and put in more effort.

Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different.
And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson.

When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.

To sum up- the story of the hare and tortoise has much to say:
Chief among them are that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady; work to your competencies; pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers; never give up when faced with failure; & finally,
compete against the situation - not against a rival.

The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one
Yet the light of the bright world dies with the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes, and the heart but one
Yet the light of a whole life dies when its love is done.

----Francis W. Bourdillon

Can you answer these puzzles correctly?

No Cheating!! Let's See How Well You Do.

Get A Pen And Paper And Write Down Your Answers.
Once You're Done, Just Scroll Down For The Answers.
And Don't Forget To Share This With Your Friends!!

1. There is one word in the English language that is always pronounced
incorrectly. What is it?

2. A man gave one son 10 cents and another son was given 15 cents.
What time is it?

3. A boat has a ladder that has six rungs, each rung is one foot apart.
The bottom rung is one foot from the water. The tide rises at 12
inches every 15 minutes. High tide peaks in one hour. When the tide
is at it's highest, how many rungs are under water?

4. There is a house with four walls. Each wall faces south. There is a
window in each wall. A bear walks by one of the windows. What
color is the bear?

5. Is half of two plus two equal to two or three?

6. There is a room. The shutters are blowing in. There is broken glass
on the floor. There is water on the floor. You find Sloppy dead on
the floor. Who is Sloppy? How did Sloppy die?
7. How much dirt would be in a hole 6 feet deep and 6 feet wide that
has been dug with a square edged shovel?

8. If I were in Hawaii and dropped a bowling ball in a bucket of water
which is 45 degrees F, and dropped another ball of the same weight,
mass,and size in a bucket at 30 degrees F, both of them at the same
time, which ball would hit the bottom of the bucket first? Same
question, but the location is in Canada?

9. What is the significance of the following: The year is 1978, thirty-
four minutes past noon on May 6th.

10. What can go up a chimney down, but can't go down a chimney up?
(Hint...chim chimminy)

11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the
other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them
all in the center field?

12. What is it that goes up and goes down but does not move?

Scroll Down For The Answers!!

ANSWERS:

1. The word "incorrectly." (Almost cracked your brain, didn't you?)

2. 1:45. The man gave away a total of 25 cents. He divided it between
two people. Therefore, he gave a quarter to two.

3. None, the boat rises with the tide. Duh.

4. White. If all the walls face south, the house is at the North pole, and
the bear, therefore, is a polar bear.

5. Three. Well, it seems that it could almost be either, but if you
follow the mathematical orders of operation, division is performed
before addition. So...half of two is one. Then add two, and the
answer is three.

6. Sloppy is a (gold)fish. The wind blew the shutters in, which knocked
his goldfish-bowl off the table, and it broke, killing him. {Poor Sloppy.

7. None. No matter how big a hole is, it's still a hole: the absence of
dirt. (And those of you who said 36 cubic feet are wrong for
another reason, too. You would have needed the length measurement
too. So you don't even know how much air is in the hole.)

8. Both questions, same answer: the ball in the bucket of 45 degree F
water hits the bottom of the bucket last. Did you think that the
water in the 30 degree F bucket is frozen? Think again. The
question said nothing about that bucket having anything in it.
Therefore, there is no water (or ice) to slow the ball down...

9. The time and month/date/year American style calendar are 12:34,
5/6/78.

10. An umbrella.

11. One. If he combines all of his haystacks, they all become one big
stack.

12. The temperature

Some Important Laws... Newton Forgot to State...

LAW OF QUEUE: If you change queues, the one you have left will start to move faster than the one you are in now.

LAW OF TELEPHONE: When you dial a wrong number, you never get an engaged one.

LAW OF MECHANICAL REPAIR: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.

LAW OF THE WORKSHOP: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

LAW OF THE ALIBI: If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the next morning you will have a flat tire.

BATH THEOREM: When the body is immersed in water, the telephone rings.

LAW OF ENCOUNTERS: The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

LAW OF THE RESULT: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will!

LAW OF BIOMECHANICS: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

THEATRE RULE: People with the seats at the furthest from the aisle arrive last.

LAW OF COFFEE: As soon as you sit down for a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Parañaque City - Novena Mecca Of Metro Manila

Geography
Parañaque lies some 9.7 km. south of the Luneta Grandstand. It is bounded by Pasay City on the north, Muntinlupa on the southeast, Las Piñas on the southwest, and Manila Bay on the west. It occupies a total land area of 46,626 sq. kilometers.

Political Subdivision
The city is composed of 16 Barangays under one Congressional District. It has been classified as a Highly Urbanized City.

Las Piñas City - Salt Center Of Metro Manila

Description
The city of Las Piñas is famous for the Bamboo Organ, praised for its unique, rare, and melodious sound. The unique bamboo organ can only be found inside the St. Joseph Church of the Parish of Las Piñas. It was in the year 1822 that the construction of this one-of-a-kind musical instrument started; it was completed in 1824. Fr. Diego Cera initiated building this organ using bamboo, wood, and metal. Yearly, a Bamboo Organ Festival is being held at the Parish during the month of February.

Las Piñas has also come to be known as a major site of Philippine revolts. During the Philippine-Spanish revolution of 1896, it was occupied by the forces of General Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the First Philippine Republic. Similarly, the city, then only a town, figured prominently during the World War II.

Beliefs on the true origin of the town’s name vary. Some say it is derived from the word “Piña,” meaning pineapple, since traders from the provinces of Cavite and Batangas shipped their pineapples for sale first to this town before the nearby markets. Others believe that the name was really “Las Peñas,” owing to the quarrying of stones and adobe, which were used to construct buildings and bridges. The name could also have originated from the two political groups that ruled the town at that time.

An inscription in an old church bell, which has been preserved inside the museum of the Las Piñas Parochial Church, states, “Siendo Cura-del Pueblo de Las Peñas el M.R.P. Padre Diego Cera se Fundio este equilon ano de 1820.” It shows that, as early as during the time of Fr. Diego Cera, the town’s first parish priest, the town had been called “Las Peñas” – until after sometime that the town’s name was somehow changed to “Las Piñas.”

Geography
Las Piñas City is bounded on the north and northeast by the city of Parañaque; on the east and southeast by the city of Muntinlupa; on the south by the municipality of Imus, Cavite; on the southwest and west by the municipality of Bacoor, Cavite; and on the northwest by the scenic Manila Bay. It occupies a total land area of 41.54 sq. kilometers.

Population
The total population was 413,086 as of the 1995 census.

Political Subdivision
The city is composed of 20 Barangays under one Congressional District. It has been classified as a Highly Urbanized City.

JULY 17
ST. LEO IV

St. Leo lived in the ninth century. He was a Roman by birth and spent his life in that city. Leo was educated in the Benedictine monastery near St. Peter's Basilica. He was ordained a priest and performed his ministry at St. John Lateran's, a large, famous basilica. Leo was well-known and loved by two popes, Gregory IV who died in 844, and Sergius II who died in 847. The death of Pope Sergius II was to have an immediate effect on Leo. Rumors of a barbarian invasion of Saracens had Romans terrified. They did not want to be left without a pope. Neither did the cardinals. They quickly elected the successor to Sergius II. He is known to history as Leo IV.

As pope, Leo had the city walls repaired. The walls had been damaged the previous year by a Saracen attack. He beautified churches and brought many relics to Rome. He started a renewal program for the clergy. In fact, in 853 he called a synod for all Roman priests. He passed forty-two rules which helped priests live more fervent, prayerful and joy-filled lives.

A few bishops caused Leo great suffering because of their lives. They confronted the pope openly and would not change their ways. No matter how much Pope Leo was insulted, he remained just, patient and humble. He never let his troubles get the best of him. Leo kept giving his time and energy for Jesus and his Church. He loved the beautiful prayers of the liturgy and encouraged liturgical chant and music.

People loved St. Leo. Even during his lifetime, he was considered a miracle worker. It is said that he was responsible for stopping the terrible fire in the English quarter of Rome.

Pope Leo IV continued serving the Church with cheerfulness right up to the end of his life. He died on July 17, 855.

Daily Reading & Meditation

Monday (7/17): "He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me"

Scripture: Matthew 10:34 - 11:1

34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man's foes will be those of his own household. 37 He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. 40 "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. 41 He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, and he who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. 42 And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." (Matthew 11) 1 And when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

Meditation: Why does Jesus describe his mission and the coming of God's kingdom in terms of conflict, division, and war? Jesus came in peace to reconcile a broken and sinful humanity with an all-merciful and loving God. Jesus also came to wage war, to overthrow the powers and principalities arrayed against God and his kingdom. What are these powers? Jesus describes Satan as the ruler of this world whom he will cast out (John 12:31). The battle Jesus had in mind was not an earthly conflict between nations, but a spiritual warfare between the forces of Satan and the armies of God. The scriptures make clear that there are ultimately only two powers or kingdoms — God's kingdom and the kingdom of darkness. John contrast these two kingdoms in the starkest of terms: We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19).

What does Satan seek? Satan opposes God and all who would follow his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. The evil one has but one aim — the complete domination of our heart, mind, and will for his kingdom. And he will use any means to draw us from good to evil, from truth to deception, from light to darkness, and from life to death. There are no neutral parties in this spiritual battle. We are either for or against the kingdom of God. The choice is ours and God's grace is available to choose for his rule in our lives.

When Jesus spoke about division he likely had in mind the prophecy of Micah: a man's enemies are the men of his own household (Micah 7:6). The love of God compels us to choose who will be first in our lives. To place any relationship or anything else above God is a form of idolatry. Jesus challenges his disciples to examine who they love first and foremost. A true disciple loves God above all else and is willing to forsake all for Jesus Christ. Jesus insists that his disciples give him the loyalty which is only due to God, a loyalty which is higher than spouse or kin. It is possible that family and friends can become our enemies, if the thought of them keeps us from doing what we know God wants us to do.

True love for God compels us to express charity towards our neighbor who is created in the image and likeness of God. Jesus declared that any kindness shown and any help given to the people of Christ will not lose its reward. Jesus never refused to give to anyone in need who asked for his help. As his disciples we are called to be kind and generous as he is. Jesus sets before his disciples the one goal in life that is worth any sacrifice and that goal is the will of God which produces real life and ultimate and completely satisfying peace. Does the love of Jesus Christ compel you to put God first in all you do (2 Corinthians 5:14)?

"Lord, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has conceived the things you have prepared for those who love you. Set us ablaze with the fire of the Holy Spirit, that we may love you in and above all things and so receive the rewards you have promised us through Christ our Lord." (from A Christian's Prayer Book)