 Spiritual: August 17, 2016 Issue [#7799] |
  Spiritual
This week: Of what use am I? Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  
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Is it necessary to be 'useful'?
And what does that mean? |
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Hallo folks,
This topic was triggered by a photo from the Olympic Games. There's a bored lifeguard at the Olympic pool, and various captions that, basically, asked of what use she was, there.
https://www.facebook.com/LovehelloU/photos/a.212900558775410.57214.1725731328081...
This set me thinking.
Could the swimming events have been held without that lifeguard there? I'm guessing -- not. Why? It would have been in the rule-book, I'm guessing. Olympic-size pool, lifeguard required. No lifeguard, no event.
Therefore, she was useful.
What does a lifeguard do at an Olympic event? Hopefully, just enjoy poolside seats for a great show. But -- think for a minute. (Bite my tongue!) What if one of the swimmers were to get, say, a stomach cramp or something, and start to sink? Can you imagine the chaos if there were NO lifeguard available?
So -- is she useful? Yes. We hope she will not be needed, but she's useful.
Which means there are times when your presence is your usefulness.
My Mom died suddenly, about a year or so after taking up a new job, and I hadn't yet had the opportunity to meet her new boss, or any of his family. Yet both he and his wife were at my house as soon as they heard the news, and his wife sat next to Dad and me through the day, till our family members could arrive across cities. We hardly exchanged a few words -- Dad and I were in a state of shock -- but we could feel her strength, steadily, for hours on end. She was there. She didn't 'do anything useful', but she was necessary. Being there is useful.
At a hospital, at the courtroom for a friend's final divorce hearing, sitting outside the room while a child is studying for an important exam ... these are times when just being there is being useful. A couple of days ago, a friend in another city was going through some stuff and pinged me on a Facebook chat. He vented, and I simply 'listened'. He 'talked' for about twenty minutes, and then stopped. Today, I got a heartfelt thank you from him. When I said it wasn't necessary to thank me, he said it was because he had to let me know I'd helped. I had a classmate in college who played tennis at the state level. I know nothing about sports, but I went for the match if she got through to the semis or the finals. I went because I enjoyed the outing, with her parents there, in important seats at the stadium. But once, when she lost a match and was feeling down, she came straight to us and just talked -- mostly to me. "I'm stupid. I made twenty double-faults," she insisted, in the heat of the moment. "You didn't, you made eight. You're counting each fault as a double-fault and throwing in some (single) faults besides," I pointed out. Slowly, she cheered up a bit. I hadn't really done anything, except point out that it wasn't twenty double-faults, it was eight.
So, no matter what our specific qualifications, talents or aptitudes, we're all useful. Because we can be there.
And sometimes, that can be the most important thing to someone.
Thanks for listening,
Sonali
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Thank you for the responses to "Spiritual Newsletter (July 20, 2016)"
I remember when my son cam home and told me I couldn't spank him or talk harshly to him. He could call the cops and I'd be in trouble. We sat down and I told him the reality. He would be punished. He would be taken to a home where no one really cared about him and sometimes people wouldn't be nice to him. They may or may not remember his birthday or Christmas. He would not see us or be allowed to come home anymore. We would be sad and miss him but that's what happens. He thought about it and decided it wasn't worth calling the cops. We love him and he needed correction to become a better person. -- Quick-Quill 
A thought-provoking newsletter, Sonali. My teenager recently told me that a throw away comment I made when she was a toddler, gave her nightmares as a small child. I had been driving us through an area I didn't know, was harried, trying to concentrate on driving and looking for a petrol station, when she asked if the car would blow up if it ran out of petrol. Absent of concentration and thought, I had replied 'yes'. Always wondered why she didn't like going out for day trips. Now I know...-- Acme 
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