A slice of life to make it all better
A couple of weeks ago, we were visiting with close friends over a meal when their daughter entered the room in tears. Something traumatic had happened at work and she burst into tears as she relayed the story to us.
For the next several minutes, we all tried to say words of comfort that we hoped would give her a more encouraged perspective. After several moments of conversation and final tears, she decided to grab a plate full of food and join the more festive atmosphere of the meal.
When she returned, her plate was covered with a sufficient amount of deviled eggs. With a little grin on her face, she looked at her mother and said, “Everything’s going to be better now that I have these eggs.”
With a stunned response, the mother replied, “Well, for goodness sake. If I had known that’s all it would take, I would have given you some eggs the minute you came through the door!”
My heart was touched by the warm connection between the mother and her adult daughter over something as simple as eggs. What a precious moment it was to observe how something so small can do so much in the hearts of people who know each other well enough to understand each other’s connecting points.
My mind drifted back to a moment in college when Joyce and I were in our younger dating days. I met her after class and she broke into tears as she told me about one of those days when everything seems to go wrong. Something had happened in the class that she had just come from that had been the crowning blow to her emotions.
As a young man who felt indebted to do everything he could to rescue his young lover, my mind went into a whirl, trying to think of something that could make “everything better” for her. Suddenly, I thought of “the solution.”
I invited her to join me in a ride to downtown Fort Wayne. Eager to get off campus, she readily agreed, wondering all along where we were going. “That,” I said, “is a big surprise.”
To my delight, I could tell that the mood was lightening considerably as we drove downtown to what, at that time, was known as “The Landing.” One of the restaurants of the time sold Jewish food. Out in front of the establishment was a large dill pickle barrel where pickles could be purchased for 5 cents a piece. Dill pickles, I had already learned, were like roses to my young lover.
As I pulled in front of the restaurant, she burst into tears again and said, “Jim, dill pickles! You’re going to treat me to a dill pickle?”
Inwardly, my heart leaped with delight at her reaction, but outwardly, I attempted to keep my “cool,” as I calmly replied, “Is that okay?”
“Of course it’s okay,” she replied. “This is just wonderful!”
For a 5-cent dill pickle, things were “fixed” for the day.
Obviously not all things in life are fixed by such a simple means. But, the aforementioned illustrations are examples of how knowing the small connections of those we love and tuning into them can provide such a wonderful heartwarming experience in such a complicated world.
As I think back over relationships with those who have meant the most, the connecting points have always been so simple and priceless. With one close friend, it was the exchange of newspaper clippings; with another, it has been certain reminiscence about childhood experiences. With my dad, it was golf or chatting over a cup of coffee; with my mother, it was going for a ride and an ice cream cone. With our oldest daughter, it’s a phone call at the end of the day or a bowl of soup at Panera Bread; with our middle daughter, it is writing and sharing of newspaper articles, and with our son, it is sports or a quick bite after work.
The list could go on and on, but in a world filled with turmoil and stress, how refreshing it is to know that the most meaningful things in life are still the things that money can’t buy.
Oh yes, there’s one person I didn’t mention in the above paragraph when I listed our family’s connecting points – yours truly.
Try peanut butter pie. It’s definitely the “egg of my life” and much more effective than dill pickles.