Paper Seeds

In 198, I had a friend who worked at Top Flight paper company here in Chattanooga.  His wife taught school with me and Kathy, and our families were good friends.  I had an idea to generate enthusiasm for the basketball team.  I got Roger to get me a box full of the notebook hole punchings.  He was glad to help.  At work, they called them “paper seeds”.  So, I had this box and was going to throw them up into the air when we won the next home basketball game.  But we lost the next two home games.  But I faithfully carried the box in and out of the gym.  So finally, we won.  At the final buzzer, I ran up behind the jubilant players and threw the box of punchings into the air.  Everyone was stunned and excited at the same time.  Within a few minutes, the exhilaration was over and the boys went into the locker room and the gym began to empty out.  But not me.  I had to sweep the punchings up.  And those tiny little pieces of paper stubbornly stuck to the floor.  It took me forever to clean them all up!  My great idea turned into hard work and embarrassment.  Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 7:8, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”  If I would have thought my idea through, I would not have done it.  But that night, I learned patience and caution.  Well, I didn’t completely learn them.  Oh well.