Saturday, November 1, 2008

The Lesson Not Learned

Once upon a time there was a man. He was good and kind and neat and very wise. He gave to charity. He worked hard. He lived up to his responsibilities. But he was unhappy. Things did not go according to the script he had in his head of the way that things "should be." People did not behave the way he felt they "should" behave. When he looked around, he saw that other people seemed to have the things they wanted & that families behaved the way they "should." He was confused and frustrated. He sweated the small AND the big stuff.

What the man didn't see was what wonders he had around him. He had children who were bright, healthy, happy. Children who were genuinely pleased when he came home. He had a beautiful house, not always the most well-kept, but pretty and homey nonetheless. He had a wife who worked hard to keep the children happy and healthy. She worked hard to keep the house reasonably tidy. And she loved the man...she had been doing so for 20 years. She did not sweat the small stuff. Oh, she had many, many flaws. And she was working on them. But she saw the wonderous lives going on in that house.

The man lost many glorious people in his life. One in particular saw the miracle of life in his final, dying months. One would have hoped that the man would have learned. Let's hope that one day, before it's too late, he does.

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