|
I am patient with stupidity but not with those
An Interesting Story – for reflectionA woman
in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun
threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked
timidly,
without an appointment, into the Harvard University President's outer
office. The secretary could tell in a
moment that such backwoods, country
hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in
Cambridge.
"We want to see The President," the man said
softly.
"He'll
be busy all day," the secretary snapped.
"We'll wait," the woman replied.
For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally
become discouraged and go away.
They didn't and the secretary grew
frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was
a chore
she always regretted.
"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said to him.
He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone
of his importance obviously
didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses
and homespun suits
cluttering up his outer office.
The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.
The woman explained, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He
loved
Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally
killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial,
somewhere on
campus, for him."
The president wasn't touched; he was surprised. "Madam," he said, gruffly,
"we can't put up a statue for every person
who attended Harvard and died.
If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."
"Oh, no," the woman explained quickly. "We don't want to
erect a statue. We
thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."
The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespunsuit,
then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a
building costs? We have over seven and a half million
dollars in the
physical buildings alone here at Harvard."
For a moment, the woman was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he
could get rid
of them now.
The woman
turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to
start a university? Why don't we just start our own?"
Her husband nodded.
The president's face wilted in bewilderment.
Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo
Alto, California, where they established
the university that bears their
name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared
about.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those
whom they think can do nothing.
WORDS OF WISDOM
"You are in charge of your feelings, beliefs, and actions.
And youteach others
how to behave toward you. While you cannot change otherpeople, you can influence them through your own behavior and actions.
By being a living role model of what you want to receive
from others,you
create more of what you want in your life."
Eric Allenbaugh
************ *******
|
