"Prayer Shawls, Politics and Parachutes"

uring the presidential campaign, in the spirit of bipartisanship, Al Gore and George Bush decide to share a tiny "puddle jumper" airplane between the smaller towns in New Hampshire. At one stop, they are joined by a Catholic priest and an Orthodox rabbi on their way to an ecumenical retreat deep in the New Hampshire woods. Over the White Mountains, the plane loses power and the pilot bails out. The remaining passengers soon find the reason for the pilot's haste: The plane has only four parachutes--and the pilot has used one.

Gore shouts, "I'm the vice president. I have to survive!" He grabs one of the remaining three 'chutes, and jumps. Bush shouts, "I'm the only hope for the Republican Party, and I have to survive!" He grabs the second-to-last 'chute and jumps.

Now the priest turns to the rabbi and says, "Rabbi, I am an old man. I have never married and have no family. You have a wife, children, even grandchildren. They will feel your loss terribly. Take the last parachute and save yourself." The rabbi calmly replies, "Fear not, Father, there are still two parachutes left. George W. jumped with my tallis and tefillin."