46. Choosing a Good Perspective

There are some things in life that are just absolutely necessary. One of these things is underwear, and I needed more. Time to go shopping. I drove up and down the aisles trying to find an empty space, growing more frustrated by the moment. When I finally did I whipped my car in and turned the key toward me. Unbuckling my seatbelt, I took a breath and just sat watching. People were zipping by in their fast little cars while talking on their phones and hastily eating their paper wrapped lunches. Customers streamed from the building with their bags full of goodies. New arrivals darted to the doors to take their place inside. I'd been to this mall many times before, but had never liked it. Or any mall for that matter. Too many people. As I watched I couldn't help but notice that all of these people looked stressed and angry. That is, all except one.

My eyes fell on a young child, probably about 4 years old. He was looking around happily while his mom got his sister out of her car seat. "Jimmy, stay right here. Keep your hand on the car!" Her voice was strained and it was obvious that the car seat straps were giving her trouble. "O.K. Momma," came the high pitched reply.

He then took a death-defying leap to close the 10 inch gap between him and the vehicle and grabbed the door handle while laughing at his own antics. I couldn't help smiling, but then quickly looked around to scope out my surroundings. I wanted to make sure no one thought I was a creepy guy stalking a kid. Yes ladies, unfortunately we've come to a point where this is something that decent, good men have to worry about whenever they are around kids they don't know.

Suddenly there was a loud rumbling and his face lit up. Four F-15 jets screamed across the sky as they moved toward the air force base just a few miles away. Jimmy started jumping up and down in excitement trying to get his mother's attention, but she refused to look up. She wasn’t the only one too busy to notice what had captured the boy’s attention. I looked around to see that Jimmy and I were the only ones with our eyes toward the sky. Everyone else was so consumed with their own stresses to pull away for anything else.

That's when I began to wonder. Would I have given regard to the jets if I hadn't made an active decision to pause and take a breath? Just minutes earlier I'd arrived at the mall tense and anxious about what other stresses I might accumulate around all these other people. I find it extremely easy to become overwhelmed and focus on immediate troubles. I can't imagine that others are much different.

I lingered in my car for some time after Jimmy and his mom disappeared into the mall doors. I thought about the perspective that most of us carry through life. The perspective that what we are doing or concerned about that moment is extremely important. So many times this just isn't true. I sincerely regret how many times I've stressed myself out over situations that ended up working themselves out with little to no help from me. This doesn't mean that we can ignore the realities of life. But it's ridiculous to sit in a crowded parking lot frustrated over a need for underwear.

Gift 49 is this: from here forward I am going to make an active effort to keep a good perspective on circumstances. Stressing out doesn't really help anyone, anyway.