Remember the time Mother Nature deposited a 15 ton, 100 foot tree onto the (hugely pregnant) Youngish Miss's house a decade ago?
Well. That fun unleashed itself on the heels of a dark series of events. John and his brother fell out of sorts over business, leaving John unemployed. He was just beginning as a realtor and money? It wasn't tight. Money was non-existent.
The Youngish Miss was boarding baby #2 while working part-time as a consultant WHILE trying to finish her dissertation. Actually, she told people she was finishing her dissertation but hadn't done a darn thing after Stryker had been born. Except breastfeed and procreate.
So there's no money, no doctorate, no real job in the entire household and after the storm there was also a huge tree in the house waiting for the crane required for removal. They lived with the tree and without electricity for four days.
During those four days, friends and neighbors brought them food. Indeed, their generosity was boundless and pure. But then . . .
a deeply religious neighbor offered this comment to Youngish Miss along with her hot dish: "Disaster actualy isn't bad. It is the Lord's way of reminding the rest of us to do service."
Youngish Miss wanted to dump that goulash over that woman's head, even though otherwise she liked her very much. A few years later, life-threatening illness struck that woman's family. When she wasn't genuinely worrying about the family, The Matron used to wonder how that disaster theory held up, in a small-minded little way.
But today -- after reading and chortling over the facebook fodder -- the Matron suddenly understood!
If you understand that 'the rest of us' means 'those of us who are currently not suffering but will some day,' disaster IS the time to serve -- to wake up and make the hot-dish. Instead of sending the mylar balloon.
She guesses she just wasn't ready to HEAR the heart of that message, then.
8 comments:
I still think she should have stuck with "I'm sorry you have to deal with this."
Yeah, that wasn't the time to give you that message.
That article is great though.
Maybe you weren't ready to hear it, but maybe she could have said it a little differently too...
Maybe she meant, "The silver lining to disaster is that it makes the rest of us get up off our self-centered butts and help someone out"? Would that have sounded better?
Suburban: You nailed it!
Ain't it something to have a flashback that imparts wisdom?
Even if it was from the mouth of a bible-banger?
The response was certainly delivered in a clumsy way, but it seemed to me the heart of it was "I am happy to be reminded of my blessings and happier yet to be able to serve you." Some folks are better with the hot dish preparation than the speech.
or just say, "here, this is for you because you're my neighbor..."
Word verification: cheep - cute :-)
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