Do you like playing card games. If so, let me ask you a question: “Have you ever been dealt a bad hand of cards?”
Back when I was a teenager, my family lived in Cuernavaca, Mexico. My mom loved to play in Duplicate Bridge tournaments. But there was a problem. To play in these tournaments, my mom needed to have a partner. Being the fifth of six kids in the family, you would assume that my four other siblings would have volunteered to support my mother, but such was not the case.
My mom “drafted me” and the issue was settled. So every Wednesday afternoon during the summer, my mom would take her partner (that would be yours truly for those who are keeping score) to that week’s Duplicate Bridge tournament. Even though I wasn’t a gifted bridge player, and my mom at times wondered whether it was too late to consider putting me up for adoption, it turned out to be an invaluable learning experience for me.
You see, what I learned is that sometimes you get dealt a bad hand of cards. And when that happens your goal changes. Instead of thinking about how much you should bid, your goal becomes playing that bad hand of cards better than the other players who will also eventually get dealt their own bad hand of cards.
I bring this up because sometimes life also deals us a bad hand of cards. And that is why I was inspired by a LinkedIn posting from Anastasia Stevenson. While Anastasia is a cancer survivor, her post saluted her nine year old son, Corey Stevenson, who is now a published author.
Corey got dealt a bad hand of cards with the news that his mom had breast cancer. Learning that a parent has cancer can be devastating, but as Anastasia noted in her posting, Corey decided to write a book about how this has impacted his life. What struck me were three very important points.
First, he wrote the book to celebrate the fact that “Mommy doesn’t have breast cancer anymore.” As I noted in last week’s Words of Encouragement, taking time to occasionally celebrate is very important.
The second point is that through this journey, Corey learned that it is important to “always be kind, always show love and always be thankful for your family.” Isn’t it interesting that a nine year old could share some principles that are apparently, based on what we are experiencing today, pretty hard to grasp for us grown adults?
Truth be told, I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to point out that the media and social commentators are going to great lengths to highlight the things that are wrong with our country. You can pick from a wide range of some social and/or political issues and then sit back and watch the venom and vilification flow with reckless abandon.
As Arthur Brooks, noted in his book, “Love Your Enemies” we don’t just dislike people with whom we disagree, all too frequently, we disdain and in some instances, even hate people with whom we disagree. Arthur offers a more compelling alternative in his message about how we can persuade people by loving them. This message is consistent with Corey’s powerful reminder about the impact that love and kindness can have in transforming this world.
And that brings me to my third point: I sense that Corey’s positive disposition and focus on being kind, loving and thankful is an important reason why he and his mom have a great look of joy on their faces. What are the things in your life that bring you that type of joy?
What Anastasia and Corey learned also reminded me of what is written in the Book of Psalms: “my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices and my body will rest secure because you will not abandon me… you will fill me with joy in your presence.”
