Will You Care About This Tomorrow?
One day years ago, while I was driving home from work, I was in a particularly bad mood over something that had happened earlier that day. For the life of me, I can't recall what had happened (which means it was probably insignificant) but I was pretty worked up. As I drove, I saw a man walking in the distance on the sidewalk towards me. I could tell by his gait that he had some physical disability. As I got closer, I realized that he had no arms from the forearm down and was carrying grocery shopping bags in the crooks of his arms. As I got even closer I could see that he was smiling and whistling. I thought, "he looks like he's walking home to his mansion and the love of his life with his lottery winnings in those bags." My next thought was, "Barnhart, you are a horrible wretch" for grousing about whatever I was mad about.
Many of our friends and colleagues have bad stuff going on in their lives – we're all living through a pandemic, but others are experiencing additional family separation/estrangement, illness, death, divorce, etc. The rest of us too often get upset at insignificant matters which we won't even recall days or weeks from now. I count myself fortunate that through coincidence, happenstance, and/or divine intervention, whenever I find myself in a dark place over something minor, I see something or someone who reminds me of how much I have to be grateful for.
Comments