LifeVestInside

THE STORY OF 143

143 is code for I love you, especially used on pagers back in the 1990s and currently used while emailing and texting.

143 is based on the number of letters in each word of the phrase: I (1), love (4), you (3).

As the story goes, dating back to the early 1900s from Minot’s Ledge lighthouse off the coast of Cohasset, Massachusetts. The story begins in 1895, when the lighthouse changed its flash pattern after a recommendation that all lighthouses have numerical flash sequences. The order, one quick flash, four flashes, then three flashes, was apparently chosen at random.

In 1915, a new assistant lighthouse keeper, Winfield Scott Thompson, came to the Minot’s Ledge lighthouse. His family lived on a neighboring island and could see the flash of the lighthouse at night. According to legend, Mary Thompson, Winfield’s wife told their children that it was the I Love You flash, their father’s way of telling them how much he loved them from across the water.

Each flash corresponded to the number of letters in each word of the phrase: I Love You. This tale proved popular, so much so that the Minot’s Ledge Lighthouse is nicknamed the I Love You lighthouse.

Fred Rogers found much value in 143. Interestingly, Mr. Rogers weighed 143 pounds and he felt this was most valuable. He would use 143 often during his show.

I believe that more than any time in history, we need more Kindness and Affection. I believe that more than any time in history, we need to say “I Love You” more often. To say, “I Love You” might be a stretch for some, so maybe 143 might be a nice alternative.

~ Loren D. Lasher

Have Sympathy

On the bus just now, there is congestion near the bus stop. The driver cannot even get close to the stop from the middle lane of the highway.

He drives on. Would-be passengers at the stop are waving their arms in desperation. But the bus has passed the stop without picking up the passengers.

Some of the passengers on the bus shout at the driver. The driver seems flustered.

But among the passengers is a dispatcher for a taxi company. He gets on the phone and requests from a driver who is in the area to pick up the passengers who were waiting for the bus. They discuss how large the taxi should be.

“Charge them only the amount of the bus fare,” he tells the taxi driver. The flustered bus driver hears the phone conversation and calls back to the taxi dispatcher: “God bless you.”

Dispatcher replies: “This is just between us,” and then looks at the other passengers and says: “Have sympathy; he’s a new driver.”

~ David Jablinowitz

Inspiring Single Moms

On the bus yesterday: a single mom is on the phone. It’s the early evening. Her children are home. The kids are telling her in the phone conversation that they’re short of some basic food items in the house.

But she’s got to get home. She can’t go shopping.

A passenger sitting nearby hears the conversation. When the mom gets off the phone, the passenger asks the woman what she needs, and offers to go to a neighborhood supermarket to purchase the items.

The bus driver hears the conversation between the helpful passenger and the mom and offers to drive the passenger to the supermarket and to wait for her in case it’s too much to carry, to walk to the single mom’s home.

I was one of just a few passengers left on the bus toward the end of the route. The few of us agreed to get off early, right there, walk just a bit more to our own homes so that the bus driver could take the single mom back to her kids, and the other passenger to the supermarket as soon as possible.

The single mom was emotional. The woman who offered to go to the supermarket explained that she is divorced but that her children are all older. “They don’t need me; in fact, they’d probably prefer that I didn’t get home so fast.

“Then, she says to the single mom: “One day, you’ll be in my situation, and you too will help a single mom with small children, or do some other good deed, because you know what it’s like and you’ll want to help someone else. You’ll feel the need to help someone else.”

~ David Jablinowitz