It’s a great temptation to volunteer as a victim. Do you know that we sign up for that job?
A man who dined every day in his favorite restaurant complained about the bread. It wasn’t fair, he emphasized, that other restaurants served lots of bread with the meal. But here he gets only one piece.
So the next time he came in, they brought him four pieces. He still complained. Couldn’t they bring more?
On his next visit, his server brought him a dozen pieces of bread. The man still complained.
For his next visit, they put a large basket of bread on the table. But he still complained. After all, the other restaurants give “all the bread you can eat.”
They decided to be ready for him the next day. They had an enormous loaf of bread prepared. It was six feet long and two feet wide. Four people carried the loaf to his table. They plopped it down in front of him. It took up half the table and hung over both sides. The chef stood back, pleased with himself, to see how the customer would react.
He looked over the loaf and commented, “So we’re back to one piece again, are we?”
Like this man, we volunteer to be victims. But perhaps in more subtle ways. We believe life is unfair, people are untrustworthy and we are getting a bad shake. Worst of all, we think everyone should know how terrible things are, so we feel obliged to tell them.
One man said of a friend that he hated to ever ask her how she was feeling because he knows ahead of time what she will say. “You get an organ recital” from her. She’ll tell you about all her surgeries, health problems and, in general, how bad everything is going for her. Not that he isn’t compassionate! He is. And he really wants to know how she is feeling because he cares about her. It’s just that she was worn him down by her constant insistence that she is a victim of her own body.
The problem is, life sometimes IS unfair, people CAN be untrustworthy and we WILL sometimes get a bad shake. But the truth is people can be victims or they can be victors. They can feel helpless and miserable, or they can feel strong. Happy people have learned that they cannot always control their circumstances, but they can often control how they will respond.
Lewis Dunning said, “What life means to us is determined not so much by what life brings to us as by the attitude we bring to life; not so much by what happens to us as by our reaction to what happens.”
You were born to be a victor! You were meant to be happy! Will you claim your birthright today?
– Author Unknown
Short stories will be posted on our blog every Saturday. They may be parables or tales that I heard in my childhood or stories from the ancient past or from the contemporary milieu. I am sure you will find this space a treasure trove of wisdom and inspiration. There will not be a single story, which doesn’t have something distinctive to offer to you…
Food for thought,
Points to ponder,
Values to cherish,
Truths to reflect upon!
Above all faith, hope, and inspiration to sustain you through all the vicissitudes of life!