Friday Roundup

Tolerance and celebration of individual differences

are the fire that fuels lasting love.

Tom Hannah 

As Friday rolls around, threats of rain have caused me to rethink my weekend plans.  Originally, I had it on my agenda to head out to Coney Island for a day on the boardwalk, but it looks like that is out now.  That's okay.  I have the entire summer ahead of me. Instead I think I'll do some reading and ancestor work.  It has been awhile since I did some work on my tree.

What a fantastic lunch we had at the Center yesterday!  Stuffed shells, meatball, salad, pineapple juice, milk, and a cream puff...all for fifty cents.  It was a celebration for Mother's Day.  Afterwards they had a show, but I didn't stay for it.  I was in a hurry to get home to Miss Minga.  I try to spend as much time with her as I can.  Sometimes I don't even want to go to the Center, but I realize what happens to me when I hang about the house I tend to focus on the negative (re: Miss Minga) and send myself into a state of depression.  So I push myself to get out for a few hours every day.  When I come home I am more refreshed and able to spend some quality time with her. 

This is Annie.  As usual she is the midst of laughter.  I am going to learn so much about life from this woman.  Yesterday someone new sat at the lunch table and asked her what her secret is.  And she responded, "Being nice.  Having a smile for everyone.  I believe that if you cannot say something nice about a person, then don't say anything at all.  I smoked and drank until about 15 years ago when my husband died of lung cancer.  I eat everything. Whatever I want, I eat. But, if asked to choose just one,  I laugh a lot and enjoy making others happy.  I enjoy being with people."  And I certainly enjoy being with her.

Okay, we all know Maxine. Well, I bet you didn't know that she attends my Center.

Maybe it is just me, but I swear she bears a strong resemblance, especially when she curls her hair.  She also has the same grumpy personality, and that was my nickname for her when I first met her.  But, we should never judge someone on first impression.  Yes, she is a grump, and yes, she does nothing but complain, but I have grown to accept and even like her.  Everyone has their own unique personality, and none of us is perfect.  The Center is teaching me something that years on the job never did...tolerance of others.  I didn't have time at work.  Always too busy with my head buried in paperwork.  

But here, at the Center, I am meeting so many new people on an entirely new level.  There are those that exude the beauty of life such as Annie, the grumps, the timid ones, the practical jokers such as Tommy, an 88 year old prankster, the easygoing ones and those that are downright miserable and want to make everyone else miserable with them.  And then we have the racists such as Betty.  Truthfully, I am finding it more and more difficult to deal with her.  

But all in all what I have discovered is that since I have developed the ability to look beyond all the seeming imperfections of others, I am able to see the beauty within. Tolerance is making me a better person.

If humans are to survive, we will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between people and between cultures. We will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life's exciting variety, not something to fear.

Gene Roddenberry