This morning I slid into the pew at church next to an elderly couple. The gentleman looked up at me as I sat down and I smiled and said, “do you want to snuggle?” He grinned and said no and as he slid over to give me some room and as he did he whispered, “No, I’ll snuggle with her.” I found it so charming as he slid up next to his wife of many years.
“What are your names,” I asked.
“George and Marcile,” he whispered. “We’ve been married 59 years.”
Well, throughout the service I broke from my manners and we kidded back and forth at different times. At one point I managed to drop the kneeler on his foot, which lead to a light rabbit punch on my arm.
At the end of the service during the announcements, our pastor announced the milestone of a couple that had been married for 50 years. During the applause I leaned over and whispered, “amateurs.”
George grinned back and so I went onto say, “They’re just kids.”
At that point George, looked at me and in a matter of fact voice stated, “It’s all in your perspective.”
It does seem that most of life is that way. Our perspectives shape our life, as thoughts are the foundation of beliefs, attitudes and feelings and all actions flow out from them.
As the service ended and we were walking out, I helped George with his cane and asked, “so how did you two meet?”
“Well,” he said. “It was at a mixer in college. I liked her but she didn’t like me at first.”
“Really… why was that?” I said.
“Well, she didn’t like my name, so it took her a while to warm up to me.” George shared, as he smiled and threw a glance Marcile’s way.
“Okay Marcile,” I exclaimed. “What was up with his name?”
Marcile started in, “Well, George was a name from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and there was a cartoon on TV that made George out to be not so favorable. They’d say, Which way did he go, George… and that bothered me for a while.”
Now I am thinking, what’s a while and how long is her while compared to my while. “So uh, Marcile, how long was a while?”
George answer this one himself. “We met in February, I proposed in June and we got married in September.”
So let me get this straight here, with all the time it took for her to warm up, it took you all the way to June to propose? That’s four whole months!”
He grinned and said, “John, it’s all in your perspective.”
What’s your perspective on the happenings of your work and life? What are the true realities that you cannot change? Then consider, what are the perspectives, the lens, the history and context that you come to these situations with? What would change, if you shifted your perspective? Just a thought… but then everything begins with one.
