The best way to tell this story

is just to tell it. Some of you may believe it. Some of you may not. Nevertheless,

it happened just the way it's written down here.

Blind dates never work out.

Everyone knows that ... except I know of one that actually did. But that

is the end of the story, and a happy ending it has been. The beginning

of the story started many, many years ago.

A young man owned a karate

studio in a small town. For years he took joy in teaching his students

what he had learned about martial arts, hard work and discipline. Then

one day he took a small group of his best students to a local elementary

school for a karate demonstration and to talk about staying away from

drugs. The show was a success. So much so that other schools in the small

county wanted their students to hear the message also.

As the popularity of the small

troop of karate students grew, so did the show. Some students broke boards

with blows from their hands and feet. Others did karate moves to music,

leaping high into the air and landing in complete splits on the floor!

Still others broke concrete blocks with sledge hammers while their instructor

lay on a bed of nails, concentrating as he held the blocks on his stomach

to show the discipline it took to become a third-degree black belt.

At the closing of every demonstration,

the young karate instructor had 10 pine boards held by ten of his best

students. On each board the name of a drug was printed in large black

letters: CRACK, POT, ANGEL DUST, ALCOHOL, ECSTASY, etc. Some were held

high, some held low, and a one student even stood on a chair as he held

the board over his head.

The instructor spun, kicked,

punched and flew through the air, and each time he hit a board, it seemed

to break with ease to the cheers of the elementary school students. The

last board the instructor came to was held by the student standing on

the chair. The instructor paused for a moment to remind the crowd of awe-stricken

students why they had come to school that day and the message the troop

of karate students had tried to bring to them. Then suddenly, the young

karate instructor jumped up high in the air, spun around, and kicked the

last board held over the head of his best student, breaking it in two.

The crowd cheered as the two pieces of board tumbled to the gym floor!

With the show over, the instructor

and his students took their bows and started to clean up. That's

when a young teacher caught the eye of the instructor, and he did what

he had never done before. He picked up half of the last board he had broken,

walked over and gave it to the shy teacher without saying a word. She

thanked him as she led her students out of the gym. He packed up and went