The Window

The Window Through Which We Look
A good story that we can learn something from...

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. "That laundry is not very clean", she said. "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: "Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this."

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

~~~

That story got me to thinking about clotheslines. Do you remember using them? I do. I recall standing beside the ringer on the washer and feeling the clothes after the water was pressed out of them. Mom would put them in a basket and carry them into the yard. We used wooden clothespins to pin the clothes to the wires that ran between two posts in the backyard. And there was the clothesline prop (see picture). We used the prop in the middle of the clothes line to keep the clothes from sagging and dragging on the ground. Then a thunderstorm might come up, and we would be running to the clothesline to get the clothes before they were soaked.

Ah! The good old days! Now I just hear the beeper on the automatic washer go "beep beep" to tell us it's time to change the clothes from the washer into the automatic dryer. My, how times have changed! And how do we use all this "extra time" we have saved? I can't find the time we save today with all of our labor saving devices. Can you?

May you have a wonderful weekend.

~~~
Tennessee Granddaddy Says:

I was recently reminded of the the Senility Prayer:

Grant me the senility to forget
the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do,
and the eyesight to tell the difference.

~~~
Quote of the Day

The best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.

These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they'll ease
Your will they'll mend
And charge you not a shilling.

~Nursery rhyme quoted by Wayne Fields,
What the River Knows, 1990

~~~
Joke of the Day

A father is explaining ethics to his son, who is about to go into business.

“Suppose a woman comes in and orders a hundred dollars worth of material. You wrap it up, and you give it to her. She pays you with a $100 bill. But as she goes out the door you realize she’s given you two $100 bills. Now what would be the ethical thing to do?" He asks his son.

His son replies, "Dad, I think you would try to find the lady and return her money, right?"

"No son", the father replies, "The ethics question is whether or not you tell your partner."

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