Perspective

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A writer friend of my wife came to our house the other day to speak at a ladies luncheon.  The topic of a positive attitude and how it shapes our lives let the proud grandmother tell the ladies about her granddaughter.  The child was born with multiple physical challenges in her feet, legs and hands.  She suffered through numerous surgeries, breaks, therapies and challenges.  What God didn’t give her physically, He doubled her portion in a great attitude and positive outlook.  She continues to defy all odds and add abilities bordering on the miraculous.  One day at the playground a little boy told her had been stung by a bee.  Empathetically she said, “I know that must have hurt.  I’ve never had anything bad like that happen to me.”  Now, complaining, what were you saying about your arthritis??

I’ve heard it said that a child shall lead the way.  Maybe we need to put some of them in charge of solving some of the world’s problems.  They couldn’t do much worse.  The granddaughter’s optimism just reminds us how much of life is about our attitude.  My wife sometimes tells me I’m being too much of a pessimist or worry wart.  I just tell her it’s an occupational hazard of being some kind of a boss most of my life since age 18.  My job has always been to solve problems.  I tried to anticipate trouble before it happened and imagine what options or solutions I might have if problems did occur.  We all know problems will arise.  The question is what contingencies have we made to deal with them.  As a school principal I told em it was my job to make sure there was toilet paper in the bathroom.  Everything else was superfluous.

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At this juncture we’re heading into our third year of battling some invisible critters that keep morphing into something else.  Sadly we look back on simpler days when we had almost unlimited freedom of movement with little need to concern ourselves about masks, shot cards, and quarantine.  Most of us have probably said at one time, “If I ever get to feeling good again I’ll never complain about anything.”  I laugh when I think about the Hebrew children fleeing Egypt after 400 years of slavery.  It didn’t take any time for them to start griping about everything from being chased by the Egyptian army to worries about starving to death.  They missed their garlic and leeks in their diet.  They got tired of manna and quail.

There have always been and will continue to be pandemics and plagues somewhere in the world.  A recession is when your neighbors out of work.  A depression is no work or a food shortage at your own house.  It’s all about perspective.  The friend’s grandchild said she’d never had anything hurt her as she adjusted the braces on her feet and legs.  Maybe some of us could remove some imaginary braces from our lives that are taking away some of our life’s joy.

By Dr. Juan Harrison

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