True Minds Ponders Suspicious Minds

I don't know what reminded me of this story, maybe it was the old Elvis song.

A gentleman in one of my men's groups (a young 88, his dad was a Baptist preacher) tells the story, apocryphal perhaps, of growing up in a rural area west of Fort Worth. He says he was 7 or 8 years old at the time.

One day my friend and his father were at the general store or gas station along the main thoroughfare. A family driving a truck with all of their belongings loaded and lashed aboard pulled up, and the driver asked the father, "We're moving our family from xxx, can you tell me what kind of people live here in this town?"

The father said, "Well, sure. What kind of people did you have in xxx?"

The driver replied, "Oh, they were just terrible. Dishonest, nasty, thieves and adulterers."

"Well, that's the kind of folks we have here also", said the father, and the driver said something and went on his way.

Just a short time later, another truck, similarly laden, happened by (maybe this was during the dust bowl), with the driver posing a similar question, to which the father again asked, "What kind of folks did you leave in your old town?"

The driver responded, "They were the best people on earth. Hardworking, honest, caring, salt-of-the-earth people. We sure hated to leave."

"Well those are exactly the kind of people we have in this town - they're great folks", said the father.

After the truck had left, the boy asked his dad why he'd had different answers for the same question. "Son, folks tend to find whatever it is they're looking for" was the father's reply.


In the same vein, I have given some thought to how we regard one another. All of us flawed, we have the choice of how we view our fellow humans: friends, co-workers, kids & parents, spouses. Do we look at them through the lens of love (I'm not talking romantic love here) and with compassion and understanding, or do we count up only the negatives that support a hypothesis?

I'm sure I've unfairly judged other people's actions or motives, and I know my own actions or motives have been at times misunderstood or purposely maligned. The result, of course, is hurt and frustration. It's a fundamental human desire to be understood by others.

I think it was the late country songwriter Paul Davis who wrote "Lord, if I'm worthy, let me hear. If I'm heard, let me be worthy."

So, here's to taking the time to understand, in hopes of being understood.