Category: Let's talk
A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco.
"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to bring home with me."
"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."
"There's something you should know the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."
"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."
"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."
"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."
At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.
The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are. Thankfully, there's someone who won't treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.
Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little prayer that God will give you the strength you need to accept people as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are different from us!!!
There's a miracle called Friendship That dwells in the heart You don't know how it happens Or when it gets started But you know the special lift It always brings And you realize that Friendship Is God's most precious gift!
Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us.
I certainly believe in the value of love and friendship. However, unconditional acceptance is not love but indifference or laziness. True unconditional love is neither possible nor desirable. In my experience, people who claim to love everybody unconditionally are being intellectually dishonest. If you think you're supposed to love everybody, you're going to run into the hard fact that there are a lot of people you don't love. You then have three ways of trying to maintain the fiction of unconditional love. You can call a lot of things love that aren't love. You can refuse to acknowledge that people are who they are and insist that, deep down, everyone wants to be the kind of person that you can love. Worst of all, you can "lovingly" try to change people, for their own good, into people you can love.
No, I think we would have a better world if we tried to practice tolerance and respect for the rights of those whom we do not understand and cannot love.
Wow. This story is just so sad. How heartbreaking.
agreed with Leann
First of all, I have to agree with the points made by post number 2 and there's not much more I can add to those thoughts. Second, this piece sounds like an e-mail forward, and is an example of the lengths some anonymous author will go to to make you send some wretched piece of glurge hurtling round the net. I mean, killing off a character to prove the moral of the story and then launching into some religious spiel? Tiresome and cliche if you ask me and even if you don't ask me, as I loathe chain letters.
Just proves the old saying about a sucker being born every minute.
What a pretentious little prick...
Never claimed I didn't have any faults, now did I?
Not you, Godzilla, I was referring to the initial post!
Whew! Thanks, I thought I'd finally struck a nerve or something with my cynical self. Anyhow, although I don't wish him to be silent, I will have to agree, but I think a lot of what he posts over here is just e-mail glurge. Idealism marches on I guess.
Even if this is some email pass along thing, who cares? It's still nice to read. There's a lot of good messages in the writings that he posts on here.
I guess I should explain myself. Or not. I don't take peoples writtings and pretend as If they're mine. that's not cool. I have too much talent to do such things. I don't know who writes these things but the reason I post them is becasue of what is needed in this world some people need to here these messages and actually learn a lesson. if there's not any nice things to say or, if there's any empty-headed thoughts leave them to you youself. if these posts doesn't do anything for you, then maybe you should put me on ignore because. I'm going to be doing this until I'm banned and If anyone have any questions, then let's go. anyone with positivity, then keep it going.
So basically you are saying those who don't agree with your postings should not provoke thinking by responding to them, I thought this showed precisely the kind of close mindedness you are accusing others of. Making people think is fine but, with full respect, this topic and the one before it just does not make you think or sad, it makes you cringe because this isn't life and the point just is not made well. I'm all for unconditional love but the morale of this story appears to be
a. Don't act like a 3 year old
b. seak help from aprofessional and
c. communicate with your family.
In this case very few of you would say ok to your kid taking in some random friend of his/hers who needs 24/7 attention, at least not without extensive questioning on who and why? Why wouldn't this supposed guys parents do the job, why not society, why doesn't the son move out and support his friend himself rather than dump all the work on his parents who may be in no state to add to their work load? taking care of your own kid with a disability is totally a different matter, hence the moral of the story like you are trying to put it makes no sense.
I'm all for love and forgiveness and I am moved by some genuine stories that feel real and make sense to me. But the hallmark type of sappy feel good postcard ish nonsense that is posted does nothing for me and I feel forced to point out its flaws. So keep up the positivity but try for goodness sake, to improve your writing so that it makes some sense, so far, I'm sorry to say, it doesn't, and this is not personal I would say thiss to whoever posted this kind of stuff. And if you are just going to ignore those comments you are as close minded as those you accuse of being so.