Galveston County Daily News, July 5, 2007 By Ahmed Ahmed While I was walking on campus, a colleague asked me: Why haven't we seen your guest column for some time and what are your thoughts nowadays? These questions tickled me with happiness. That is because, in fact, I have a bundle of thoughts that I would like to put into words to my fellow residents of Galveston County through their Daily News. The questions and the sensation that followed reminded me of a story that I read not too long ago but did not comprehend until I was asked about my thoughts. Tony, a teenager with Down syndrome, has a positive outlook on life. He always has happy thoughts that make him smile cheerfully. One day, his father suggested he should transcribe these happy thoughts into a computer document, which he did. Tony got a job as a sacker in a supermarket. He was always smiling, not because the manager asked him to do so but because he had a wealth of positive thoughts. One day a customer asked him, "Why you are smiling?" He told her his secret, then she asked: "What are your thoughts?" He gave her a copy of his document. She was so happy to read it. He then developed the idea of making numerous printouts of his daily positive thoughts and putting a copy in each sack with the receipt. The customers read the thoughts when they got home. Then, whenever they shopped at the store, they stood in Tony's lane to receive some positive thoughts in their sacks. People who were under the weather, feeling blue or having problems went to the supermarket to buy anything just for one of Tony's positive thoughts in their sacks. Business grew significantly and the store thrived. It was transformed. Dr. Ahmed E. Ahmed is a professor at UTMB and a member of Galveston Islamic Center.