Jayne O'Conner said, "I grew up thinking that someone was watching over me. I feel a little less watched over now." She was talking about the Old Man of the Mountain, a 40-foot tall natural outcropping of granite ledges in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, which looked like the profile of an old man. Two hundred years ago Nathaniel Hawthorn wrote a famous story about it: "The Great Stone Face." The image was on New Hampshire license plates and quarters and about a million souvenirs; it was the official state emblem. Sometime on May 1 or 2, 2003, in a heavy fog, the 700-ton face fell. It broke apart and slid down the mountain in the dark. Steven Heath, one of the residents of nearby Franconia Notch, said, "It's something that has been a part of our lives forever. At first it was disbelief. No one could believe he came down. It's like a member of your family dying." Another man said, "I'm absolutely devastated by this. It makes you wonder if God is unhappy with what is going on." There are times when it seems the most dependable, reliable presence in your life disappears into the fog in the middle of the night. The next morning, that "mountain" you've depended on is gone, and "it makes you wonder if God is unhappy." But the Bible teaches again and again there is only one Rock that will never crumble: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever."[note to self--I need to get a photo of this]

Recruit People Better Than You

Each of the 217 times David Ogilvy opened a new office for Ogilvy & Mather he'd leave a set of Russian nesting dolls on the desk of the incoming manager. When the manager removed the top half from the largest of these bowling pin-shaped dolls, he or she would find a slightly smaller doll inside. This would continue until the manager came to the tiniest doll and retrieved from its interior what looked to be the note from a fortune cookie: "If each of us hires people smaller than ourselves, we shall become a company of midgets. But if each of us hires people bigger than ourselves, we shall become a company of giants. – David Ogilvy."