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Feeling Nostalgic? The archives > The Window Through Which We Look

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message 1: by F.D. (new)

F.D. Crandall (fdcrandall) | 42 comments Here's a little tidbit I got in my e-mail this morning. I think it's perfect.

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman saw her neighbor hanging the wash outside.


"That laundry is not very clean," she said. "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband, "Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this."

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

Very cool message, I think...



message 2: by [deleted user] (new)

A nice little reminder - thanks.




message 3: by F.D. (new)

F.D. Crandall (fdcrandall) | 42 comments Your are, as always, welcome.


message 4: by Chris (new)

Chris | 13 comments It is a bit bizarre that the woman focused on the laundry and didn't notice that everything else outside had the exact same dirty tint as the laundry.


message 5: by F.D. (new)

F.D. Crandall (fdcrandall) | 42 comments It's philosophical. The message sometimes bends reality... just a little.


message 6: by Usako (new)

Usako (bbmeltdown) What a wonderful message, F.D.!

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to pass this on to others.


message 7: by Chris (new)

Chris | 13 comments Yeah, I was just trying to make a joke... just a little one.


message 8: by Usako (new)

Usako (bbmeltdown) *hands Chris some rose-colored glasses* ;)


message 9: by F.D. (new)

F.D. Crandall (fdcrandall) | 42 comments I know. I was playing off of the joke. Sorry.

Tanja wrote: "What a wonderful message, F.D.!

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to pass this on to others."





message 10: by Richard (new)

Richard | 347 comments Gus would have taken a flame-thrower to his neighbour's grimy laundry that very first morning and then demanded vodka and brownies.


message 11: by Usako (new)

Usako (bbmeltdown) When did Gus get promoted to TC's "Chuck Norris"?


message 12: by Heidi (new)

Heidi (heidihooo) | 10825 comments Gus would eat Chuck Norris' soul for lunch... and then burp.


message 13: by Richard (new)

Richard | 347 comments Chuck Norris lives under Gus' toenail.


message 14: by Sally, la reina (new)

Sally (mrsnolte) | 17373 comments Mod
So much Chuck Norris these days! WTFF?


message 15: by Félix (new)

Félix (habitseven) "This life's dim windows of the soul
Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through, the eye."
— William Blake


message 16: by Cosmic Sher (new)

Cosmic Sher (sherart) | 2234 comments Double-Woot!
Um, Me too?

How bizarre that I just read this same story in a book I received from another site (no, no, not another book site... more the 'woo-woo' type). I really like the simple message in it - basically, clean your own shite before you go after the neighbors. :)

Or, in other words, it's all in your perspective reality.

I love synchronicity.


message 17: by Richard (new)

Richard | 347 comments It's an upgrade of the old log-and-splinter parable, which implicity suggests that it's okay to judge others as long as your slate is clean. But when is your slate clean? And if it is, is it okay to judge?


message 18: by Leslie (new)

Leslie | 777 comments I like that. It reminds me of something I think about often--not often enough, I'm sure.
A man was outside his village on the road and another man drove up on a wagon. He said he had left his village and was looking for an new place to live. He asked the man about his village.
The man said, "What was your old village like?"
He said, "Horrible, terrible people, all mean to each other, just awful, that's why I had to leave."
The first man said, "Well, this village is the same as your old one, I'm sorry to say, I don't think you'd like it here at all."
So the second man didn't stop at the village.
Then the next day the same man was on the road outside the village and another person rode up on a wagon and said he was looking for a new village and asked about this one.
The man asked the traveler the same question and this man said, "Oh, my village was a wonderful place, so many kind people, everyone helping their neighbor, all the people were so nice."
The man said, "That sounds just like this village, I think you would be very happy here."
And the man moved to the village.

I try to ask myself, am I more like the first traveler or the second. The "villages" are pretty much the same usually, right?


message 19: by Richard (new)

Richard | 347 comments Not quite. I have lived in two very different villages and I can assure you I won't be returning to the first.


message 20: by Jessica (last edited Jun 14, 2009 10:19AM) (new)

Jessica (jesstrea) I don't think all villages are the same.
I do think our attitude, how we look at ourselves and others, affects how others see us and ultimately, how we are met in the world, by people and events (since they involve people).
So that some deeply unhappy people will be so no matter where they move--

I moved a year ago from one small town in Connecticut to another small one over the border in Massachusetts. I am infinitely happier here.


message 21: by Leslie (new)

Leslie | 777 comments Yeah, you're right, it is too simplistic to say all villages are the same--they aren't.
But I do love the meaning of the parable, that so much of how we experience the world comes from inside us, even though it doesn't feel that way. I keep trying to remember that and figure what is me and what is the outside world.


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