Spreading the Light

Edith Wharton wrote “there are two ways of spreading the light, to be the candle or the mirror that receives it”. I think both ways are positive though there are many different ways of interpreting this quotation. A person can be a role model for others to emulate; or a person can follow the path of an admirable person. To be a role model is hard work because you may have to break paths along the way; to follow the path of someone admirable would at first appear to be easy but if that person were Jesus Christ you know the path will be hard to follow.

You would think to simply get up, go to work, do the job and come home would be easy enough to do without getting into any trouble but if you set your target of right conduct high then it isn’t that easy. You have to learn not to curse if you stub your toe or cannot find your shoes. You have to not speed, be forbearing with the non-signalling drivers on the road; be patient with colleagues; be tolerant of failing systems and at all times avoid negative talk. And that is just the first two hours of the day! There’s still 7 more to go. If you cannot do the simple curbing of self, how can you control the harder things?

I hope that the harsher behaviours are easier to resist, such as contemplating murder or highway robbery. I am pretty sure that those things wouldn’t seriously cross my mind even when I was in a real fit of anger. Perhaps it is because I am well into menopause that my patience is simply not what it used to be and so I find myself getting irritated by others less than perfect behaviour a lot faster than I used to. After all human nature doesn’t really change much from generation to generation, we only think it does as we mature. How different is the world of Charles Dickens from today, really.

All the same, I’d like to be a spreading light of positive things. I’d like to see only the good in people and bite my tongue at the negative words. Practice, practice, practice.