Blog
An important introductory note: I met Sam today while visiting my wife in rehab. Tomorrow marks the end of the 5th month since my wife’s brain trauma began. A stubborn aneurysm that burst twice was only the beginning. You can scan some earlier blogs for more details. She is now in a local care facility for rehab. Today is Saturday 2/24/17.
In my last blog I voiced concern over our increasingly divided nation. Our news outlets seem to enjoy fanning the flames that destroy hope. When hope is lost, a nation, a society, a government, a people, a marriage, a family… will perish! Unfortunately, heartwarming stories don’t drive ratings like sensational stories do.
I grew up in a small mid-western community. Most of the people I knew were either employed in local factories or in farming. My dad was a schoolteacher and my mother stayed home working hard for her husband and her four children. As a young child I was always the first one on up on Christmas day. I remember one year, my dad in an effort to get a little more sleep required that we be dressed before we opened gifts. No problem, I just put my pajamas on over my clothes.
The words in the title above appear to be totally opposite, but the following few paragraphs will unite them. I believe many of society’s ills would be vastly diminished with a good dose of compassion, laced with a pinch of selfishness. For that to take root, as the saying goes, would take a come to Jesus meeting.
In the business sense, holding hands carries the connotation of an employee who is incapable of following instructions without someone “holding his hand.” Musically, a song about holding hands was a runaway hit for a new group called the Beatles. But, as you would expect, I am taking the idea of holding hands in a different direction.
Most of us would associate “For Better or For Worse” with words spoken in a wedding vow. I repeated those simple words many years ago with little or no thought of what they might one day entail. Today, however, my mind went beyond the original intent of those words to consider what it would be like if we applied that vow to other areas of life.
Our personal and professional lives are interconnected in numerous ways. Both require decisions that are made in an instant and over time. If life gives us anything, it gives us the ability to reflect on decisions great and small that have become life altering. What we choose to do with that reflection can become an integral part of our success or our failure both personally and professionally.
