Quang
31-10-2006, 09:53 AM
I like this story. It's from "Condensed Chicken Soup for the Soul"
The world needs more people like this kid. I have a lot to learn from him myself.
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The eternal optimist
We have been lucky to be blessed with three sons. Our middle son, Billy, is fondly known as "the eternal optimist." For example, he had always been an early riser and liked to get in our bed at 5 a.m. Although we would admonish him to be quiet and go back to sleep, he would say in a falsetto whisper, Its going to be a beautiful morning. I hear the birds singing." When we would ask him to stop talking, he would reply, "I not talking to you; I talking to me!"
In kindergarten, teacher asked the class to draw a tiger. Art is not his strong suit, and his tiger came out with one eye that appeared to be shut. When asked why the tiger had one eye closed, he replied, "Because he's saying, 'Here's looking at you, kid!'"
Once he got into an argument with his older brother about whether a man on TV was bald. Billy said, "He's not bald. He's only bald when he looks at you. When he walks away, he has lots of hair!"
Our youngest son was stricken with a serious uremic syndrome on a Tuesday and died on the following Friday. The night after Tanner's funeral, I had laid down beside Billy to discuss the day, as we often did. On this night, we were lying in the dark with not much to say. Suddenly, Billy spoke, "I feel sorry for us, but I almost feel more sorry for all those other people." Which people was he talking about? "The people who never knew Tanner. Weren't we lucky to have had Tanner with us for 20 months. Just think, there are lots of people who were never lucky enough to know him at all. We are really lucky people."
The world needs more people like this kid. I have a lot to learn from him myself.
==============================================
The eternal optimist
We have been lucky to be blessed with three sons. Our middle son, Billy, is fondly known as "the eternal optimist." For example, he had always been an early riser and liked to get in our bed at 5 a.m. Although we would admonish him to be quiet and go back to sleep, he would say in a falsetto whisper, Its going to be a beautiful morning. I hear the birds singing." When we would ask him to stop talking, he would reply, "I not talking to you; I talking to me!"
In kindergarten, teacher asked the class to draw a tiger. Art is not his strong suit, and his tiger came out with one eye that appeared to be shut. When asked why the tiger had one eye closed, he replied, "Because he's saying, 'Here's looking at you, kid!'"
Once he got into an argument with his older brother about whether a man on TV was bald. Billy said, "He's not bald. He's only bald when he looks at you. When he walks away, he has lots of hair!"
Our youngest son was stricken with a serious uremic syndrome on a Tuesday and died on the following Friday. The night after Tanner's funeral, I had laid down beside Billy to discuss the day, as we often did. On this night, we were lying in the dark with not much to say. Suddenly, Billy spoke, "I feel sorry for us, but I almost feel more sorry for all those other people." Which people was he talking about? "The people who never knew Tanner. Weren't we lucky to have had Tanner with us for 20 months. Just think, there are lots of people who were never lucky enough to know him at all. We are really lucky people."