The more dirt you throw, the more ground you lose. — Tennessee Wisdom. (thanks to Davis Liles)
Modern political wisdom, and I’ve heard it said by some of the best, is that negative campaigning is the most effective. I’m sure I’m wrong, but I don’t buy it. What’s really at play is that it is easier to articulate a negative campaign than to come up with a vision and reason for people to vote for you rather than against the other person. But that’s enough for politics.
What is more important is that we learn not to lose ground in our own life by throwing dirt at our own circumstances, our workplace, and our neighbors. It’s easy to cast stones, it takes a lot of effort to let them drop from our hands and turn away. Haven’t you known someone who is so negative, so into blaming and criticizing others, that they make it difficult to be around. I certainly have and it is easy to get caught up in negativity.
As a child I used to love playing in the mud, and after doing so my grandmother would make me take off all my clothes outside the house and she would wash me down with a hose and make me wash my clothes in the sink in her carport. While I was performing this last chore she would always remind me that “mud ain’t good for much, except getting stuck.”
Thanks for the quote credit and the reminder of the downside of negativity. It is as infectious and harmful as any bacteria. Where is Norman Vincent Peale when we need him? Acually heard a story about a new group of psychologists nationwide who basically follow his dictum’s in an updated for our times format. I am encouraged!
DL
You remind me of a meditation a friend shared recently, so I pass it along here, good friend.
Become a Lake ~
An aging master grew tired of his apprentice’s complaints. One morning, he sent him to get some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master told him to mix a handful of salt in a glass of water and then drink it.
“How does it taste?” the master asked.
“Bitter,” said the apprentice.
The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.”
As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked, “How does it taste?”
“Fresh,” remarked the apprentice.
“Do you taste the salt?” asked the master.
“No,” said the young man. At this the master sat beside this serious young man, and explained softly:
“The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”
Your daily writings help people become their lake.
Wow. Thank You. What a wonderful story and lesson. Thank you Joanne.
Good one, Webb! Love your grandmother’s quote– do you have others?