Posted by
Steve on Wednesday, October 18, 2006 2:04:17 AM
Adversity is something that we all face from time to time. Our response to adversity tells you a lot about who you are and your value system.
In the past, we have had movies taken from our collection of VCR tapes. We were angry that the tapes were taken. But, we did not dwell on the loss of the tapes. We just picked up where we were and went on. We counted the movies as a loss and considered ourselves lucky that we did not suffer a more severe loss.
We have seen others that when confronted with adversity become destroyed. They allow the loss of things to destroy their piece of mind. Once something is gone by theft or destruction, there is nothing you can do to bring it back. You can replace the item with a similar item, but cannot replace the original.
When my wife had her wedding ring stolen, she was devastated. The ring meant a lot to her. The diamond was a family heirloom. The ring itself was a mother's ring with stones for each of our children. She could have allowed the loss to effect other aspects of her life. She decided the ring was a loss and there was nothing she could do to bring it back. We went out and tried to replace the ring as best we could. The diamond was replaced with one that was of a higher quality. I told her that she deserved a higher quality diamond in her ring. The mother's ring was harder to replace. We found one that was similar. The stones used in this ring are of a higher quality than those in the old ring. All in all, the new ring is more valuable than the old ring.
Things can be replaced. People cannot be replaced. If it is a choice between a thing and a person, the person wins every time. I have seen people choose the thing over the person. It always shocks me when people choose things over people. I guess it just shows the value system in place at the time. I value people. I will always choose people over things. Others value things more than people. They will choose things over people. I will never understand those people.