Perhaps you have a heard about this young shoe salesman in the first half of the 20th century who was sent to Africa. He must have landed in a place outside the city because he wrote a very discouraged letter to his boss asking to bring him back home. He said in the letter, “It’s impossible to work here; nobody wears shoes.”The young shoe salesman was sent back home but his place was taken by another who couldn’t get the shoes to come fast enough as he wrote to the company saying, “Send me more; everybody here NEEDS shoes!”
Some of us look at difficult situations as impossibilities, but others look at the same situations as opportunities. The situation is the same; the difference is in us and in how we look at it. What we have to do sometimes is change the perspective, the angle from which we look at the situation. We can complain of the dishes or thank God that we had something to eat. We can complain of our colleagues or appreciate that we have a job. We can complain about our work and shores or thank God every morning that have something to do which must be done whether we like it or not, because being forced to work and forced to do our best, breeds in us temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and contentment, and a hundred other virtues which the idle never know. I heard it said, “If you don’t like the conversation, change the narrative!” But our lives are what they are. Sometimes we can change them but more often than not we can’t, or at least not without ignoring major ethical concerns. One thing is possible though, while we may not be able to change the narrative of our lives but we can certainly change the conversation about it.
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