There was a book I loved as a child. I believe it was called It Could Always Be Worse. I think it was a Russian folk tale. The basic gist of the story was this: A man was feeling like his home was too small for his growing family and too noisy with all of the children and activity. So, he went to see the village wise man. The wise man advised him to bring his chickens into the house. This made things even crazier, so the man went back to the wise man who advised him to bring his donkey into the house. This made things crazier still. So the man went back. On, and on it went, until all of the man's animals were living in the house too. Finally, the wise man advised him to put all of his animals back out to the barn, etc. When the man did this, he was elated at the size and order that he found in his home.
Sometimes we need things to be put into perspective just like this poor Russian man.
Two days ago, I was bemoaning a situation I was facing with our scouting program in our Ward. Basically, we have lost our charter because we did not fill out the proper paperwork or pay our dues in time. This problem was brought to my attention after it had become a crisis.
I was sharing these woes with my mother. She then shared with me the problems of some of her dearest friends and neighbors:
- An honest and kind man is facing prison time for a crime he didn't commit, without any real chance to share his side of the story.
- A woman just learned that her cancer has advanced to the point that there is no treatment that will cure her.
- Another woman just had another surger in order to remove all of the scar tissue from a previous reconstructive surgery following a mastectomy.
- Another friend is facing a difficult divorce after a long and difficult marriage.
Isn't it great that my Cub Scout Pack lost it's charter? I mean, really, this only requires some additional paper work and money! In communicating the full situation to our representative in the Bishopric, I plan to compile a long, long list of "Things Worse Than Losing Our Cub Scout Charter."
Perspective is such a great gift, isn't it?
