Remember the parachute packer

I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor. How many hours did he spend on that long wooden table in the bowels of that ship weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of those chutes? I could have cared less…until one day my parachute came along and he packed it for me.

Source: Charlie Plump

Captain Charlie Plump would never have anticipated that day but it happened as his story on the above link will reveal. When we move through life there are moments of truth when you realize that sometimes you escape the undesired not because of your own doing or a good back up plan but because there was someone unknown to you who did their job well and made sure you made it out alive. I love the story of Charlie Plumb because it is a story of the unsung heroes of our lives. Those people stuck in the gallows of our lives but responsible for you as you stand on the big stage of life. The people who do the unseen menial stuff that no one even knows or even cares about, but which can be costly if not done diligently and with due care.

Have you ever stopped and thought about the many unsung heroes in your life. The people that are connected to the very core of your existence through what they do, but maybe you just have not had to use your parachute 'yet'. Imagine you have to use it one day because something went wrong as things sometimes do. Will the chute open up and land you safe on familiar grounds? It’s not a thought we consider is it? We expect life to carry on as normal until the nuts on the car tyres were not tightened, or the brakes fail on the highway. Life is never a one man show and the sooner one realizes it, the sooner one starts to respect those deemed insignificant people around them.

Everyone matters and every job is key to life revolving as it does. Let us always consider those who pack our parachutes as we go out to save the world daily and realise that without a proper parachute, things may not end as we wish. Many people pack your parachute daily. The food you eat, the car you drive, the elevator you use, the stitches on the clothes you wear, which withstand the strain. Yes you pay for good service and products and in today's world there are lawsuits and many ways of recourse, but at what cost? Is it not just wonderful when your life runs smooth without you fighting anyone for not doing their job well? You are also packing someone's parachute today. Do it well and bask in the glory of knowing that someone will save the world because you backed them up well.