Saturday, June 17, 2023
Recently I was at a dinner party in the wealthiest, most exclusive neighborhood in my city. I was in a multi-million-dollar home, surrounded by priceless antiques and precious family heirlooms. The guests were seated at a mahogany table spread with the finest, hand-painted plates and sterling silver flatware. What did we talk about? Perhaps we should have marveled at how very fortunate we all were! But no, we talked about how “horrible” things were!
From the increase in prices to poor service in a restaurant, nobody had good news. This acquaintance was going down in health; a mutual friend was getting a divorce; and there was a stressful dog attack next door. “We have to enforce leash laws in this city!” The actions of a flip-flopping politician gets one person worked up. Rudeness on the road wears on another. Another complained of a lack of attendance at church, while another roused about a nephew who refused to work and mooched off of his grandmother. Soon the conversation turned to chastising the grandmother for being an enabler of said nephew. One guest lamented the lack of customer service these days, “You just can’t get a real person on the phone anymore,” he groused.
Currently, I’m reading Victor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. In it, he describes the horrors of being a deprived, malnourished, frost-bitten, concentration-camp victim who was constantly beaten, insulted, and starved. They lived enslaved and in deplorable, indescribable conditions. Listen to your own displeasure. Is it really a problem? Chances are you’re harping on nothing but hot-air, a critical analysis worth zero. Are your words worthy of anything? Listen to the inner grousing, the complaining, the “problems” of the rich, overly-comfortable world. Where are the hopes? Where are the excitements and moments of gratitude? Where are the dreams of making a better world? Where’s the love of living? Where is the good news?