Luky
I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN EXTREMELY FOND OF PEOPLE, THOUGH MY AFFECTION IS NOT ALWAYS RECIPROCATED.
It hardly ever happens to me that I meet a person whom I immediately think: "She's not my cup of tea."
Yet the reverse often happens.
Once I was introduced to a woman who behaved exactly the way I do - and, strange to admit, she did get terribly on my nerves.
That was a poser, I can tell you, and ever since then I've been unable to hold anything against people who find me a little hard to take.
The only people I really find it difficult to be fond of are those who complain all the time.
Copy the copers
I don't believe that it is necessary to moan so much.
Everyone has problems.Some cope, and some moan. I go for the copers, and try to emulate them.
And that's easy enough; didn't Our Lord say: "My yoke is easy and burden light?"
Complementary
How often do you have a sickly wife who has a strong and tender husband, or a sickly husband whose wife doesn't even catch cold in winter?
Isn't if funny how, when there is one sick partner, there is often enough money in the kitty to carry the family through.
Several times I have heard people say: "Funny, we had solved all our financial problems and built up a nice little nest egg: then father became ill and couldn't work for a year.
"If that had happened three years before, we would have been in the soup. As it was, we managed to weather the storm."
Replacement value
An orphan develops a hero worship for an understanding teacher, whom he puts in the place of unavoidably absent parents.
The teacher, while keeping a suitable distance, is kind to the child.
When the child passes to a higher standard, he has learnt to cope a little better with his deprivation.
And yet, now and again, you meet a person who seems to have received such a raw deal that even thinking of his misery touches your heart.
Some people are losers. They are the bullied ones.
They seldom complain, and after each bout of misfortune come up smiling with such poignant good cheer that your heart aches for them.
I think that when Jesus was so afraid in the Garden of Olives, He thought of such people - the ones psychologically unable to return cruelty for cruelty, losing their jobs and marriage partners to others not as deserving as themselves.
I often think that if the thought of them caused Jesus the sorrow they cause my infinitely less understanding heart and mind, then He had no choice in the matter but to take up His cross and die for humanity.
And I don't think it's the ones who succeed in life and business, nor the moaners, however put upon they were in life, who will be at the head of the queue marching into Heaven when the last judgement has been passed.
I think it will be those who tried so hard to do everything the way it should be done, yet never received the approval and support which we all crave.
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