From: "John Lester aka the GEMSMAKER" <gemstars-admin@discussion-lists.com>

To: nicers@discussion-lists.com

Date sent: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 03:19:10 +0000

Subject: (Fwd) What is a Nicers/gemSTARS? Dr. Papaderos

Send reply to: nicers@discussion-lists.com

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Tony wrote this to me accidentally. I think it is very good:<g>

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------

From: insman@panacom.com

Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 23:55:11 -0800

To: gemstars-admin@discussion-lists.com

Subject: What is a Nicers/gemSTARS? Dr. Papaderos

Dear Fellow Nicers/gemSTARS :)

I received this minutes ago

and

I thought - "How appropriate"

I only wish I had written this piece.

Please read this slowly

as

I want you ALL to understand it's meaning.

We all should be "Dr. Papaderos"

Thanks for your time

and

have a Nicer Night ;)

Tony Whitt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Dr. Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?"

I asked the aging German

professor of Greek culture and history.

The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go.

Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and

looked at me for a long time,

asking with his eyes if I was serious and seeing from my

eyes that I was.

"I will answer your question."

Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket,

he fished into a leather billfold

and brought out a very small round mirror,

about the size of a quarter.

And what he said went like this:

"When I was a small child, during the war,

we were very poor and we lived in a remote village.

One day, on the road,

I found the broken pieces of a mirror.

A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.

I tried to find all the pieces and put them together,

but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece.

This one.

And by scratching it on a stone I made it round.

And I began to play with it as a toy and became

fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light

into dark places where the sun would never shine

- in deep holes and

crevices and dark closets.

It became a game for me to get light into

the most inaccessible places I could find.

I kept the little mirror,

and as I went about my growing up, I would

take it out in idle moments and continue

the challenge of the game.

As I became a man, I grew to understand

that this was not just a child's game but a metaphor

for what I might do with my life.

I came to understand that I am not the light

or the source of light.

But light - truth, understanding, knowledge

- is there, and it will only shine in many dark places

if I reflect it.

I am a fragment of a mirror

whose design and shape I do not know.

Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into

the dark places of this world

- into the black places in the hearts of men -

and change some things in some people.

Perhaps others may see and do likewise.

This is what I am about.

This is the meaning of my life."

And then he took his small mirror and,

holding it carefully,

caught the bright rays of daylight

streaming through the window and reflected

them onto my face and

onto my hands folded on the desk.

Much of what I experienced in the way of information

about Greek culture and history that summer

is gone from memory.

But in the wallet of my mind

I still carry a small round mirror.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

be a Dr.Papaderos - Be a Nicer/gemStars Person

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