Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Taking Time

I recently received an email from one of my granddaughters.  It was one of those emails that was full of accusations and lies.  They're easy to spot because they're done up in a lot of large red font and they talk about patriotism and our Christian nation.  They go on to rail against an individual or a company or a segment of the world population.  They're also easy to discover as lies by simply doing a Google search.

I was especially disturbed to get this from someone so young.  This particular grandchild is a pre-teen and gleefully spreading dissension.  I immediately thought about an incident I read about in one of the books by Anne Lamott.

It seems that Anne was out with one of her friends.  This woman was in the last stages of cancer and her friends would take her out in her wheelchair whenever she was feeling up to an outing. Anne took her along that day when she was shopping for clothes.  Anne set her friend's wheelchair outside a fitting room and would come out to model dresses as she tried them on, asking for input.

After trying on one particular dress Anne came out of the fitting room, turned right and left, and finally asked her friend, "Does this dress make me look fat?"  Her friend replied.  "Anne, you don't have time for that."  Her friend died two weeks later.

So with the precious time that we have upon this earth it might be good to ask ourselves, on occasion, exactly what we want to use our time for and whether activities, such as spreading dissension, is worth our time.  I'm still waiting to get an email that asks me to send to everyone I know some facts about and incredible company, human being, or segment of the population who is making this world a better place to live.  I think I might actually send on such an email.  

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