The Results Were Negative
Private Little Battles, Won
The other day, at a local coffee shop, I was doing some editing on the upcoming fire towers of NY book, when an tiny, older lady sat down at the table next to mine. She had a tea and a scone and she was clearly excited about something.
I paid her no mind until the phone calls started. She began calling people, speaking loudly to them and speaking to them on open phone speaker. Right there. Right in the busy shop.
Really loudly. I grew irritated.
But then I heard her say, excitedly, “The results were negative!”
The person on the other end - and remember, the phone speaker was on at full blast - exclaimed, “Oh that’s so wonderful!”
This went on for a long time. Her calling contacts I assume were friends and family. She was going down a list of loved ones, telling them that some result - some test that could have resulted in terrible news, didn’t.
She was so loud and so obvious about this that a random woman came up to her and told her she was glad things turned out. The calls went on for a while, and finally she had reached, apparently, everyone on her list and settled back to finish her breakfast. And I went back to my work.
Everyone - EVERY. ONE. - exists inside their own, personal, private universe. You have no idea what battles they are fighting. Life can be cruel and unforgiving. Good news can be far and few between. Maybe when it does happen, we ought to - like this lady did - shout it from the rooftops.
She looked so relived. Whatever had been hanging over her head had been lifted.
After a bit, on my way out, I leaned close to her as I walked by and said, “I’m happy for you.”
She beamed.
Roll with it. Give some slack. Let people be happy.
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❤❤❤❤❤ Having been on the receiving end of "positive" results, there is so much joy and wisdom in this post. We need more of that as a society.
Such a wonderful post -- it might appear in a sermon soon ... with your permission. If that's OK (I am thinking ahead to the Sunday before Thanksgiving ... I'm in a different place each week -- last Sunday it was Unitarian Universalists in the morning and Indonesian Congregationalists in the afternoon). If I have your permission, please tell me how I pronounce your last name.