Friday, March 28, 2008

give me pollyanna, the game, and lemonade

today started off not so hot.

i’m going on a road trip with anne next week and we’re leaving on sunday.

unfortunately, my car has been in the shop all this week and i found out that it won’t be ready till next week sometime.

so basically i have to take my dad’s car, of which i am not fond of one ounce.

my mom told me that i should read pollyanna.

and seeing as it was less than 200 pages, i conceded.

so i read the whole thing, and now am blessed with a much better attitude because i played "the glad game."

i won’t explain it here though, because it would be better for you to read the book to understand it.

but there was a certain passage that stood out to me while i read:

what men and women need is encouragement. their natural resisting powers should be strengthened, not weakened...instead of always harping on a man’s faults, tell him of his virtues. try to pull him out of his rut of bad habits. hold him up to his better self, his real self that can dare and do and win out!...the influence of a beautiful, helpful, hopeful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town...people radiate what is in their minds and in their hearts. if a man feels kindly and obliging, his neighbours will feel that way, too, before long. but if he scolds and scowls and criticizes--his neighbours will return scowl for scowl, and add interest!...when you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. when you know you will find the good--you will get that...

this is a topic that our college group has been discussing lately.

one that is so easy to say, "yeah that’s the right thing to do," but hard to actually do.

i think i shall try to play the game this time.

and this time, wholeheartedly.

p.s. after pollyanna, i have concluded that it would be better to go on my roadtrip with the car that i don’t like, than to not go on the roadtrip at all.

i chose lemonade.

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