God Bless Ya Honey!

   The only bright spot in a really bad workday a few days ago came when an elderly woman asked for help using our blood pressure monitor. This happens a few times a week because most older people have trouble using our higher tech monitor.
  I stood by her and guided her though the process. When I was done I stated to walk toward the pharmacy when she said, "Thank you for being pleasant." I stopped and turned around.
  "You smiled," She said, "Everyone else walks around with a grump on their face. It takes just as many muscles to smile as it does to frown."
  "That's because I'm doing what I really like to do," I replied.
   She nodded approvingly. The she looked at my left hand. "Is that your wedding ring?" she asked.
   "Yes," I said with a touch of pride, "My husband designed it for me."
  "Let me look at it," she said.
   I walked back over to her and extended my left hand so she could have a better look.
   "Your wedding ring is attached to the other ring, " she said. She was referring to the fact that I had a wrap around my engagement ring. "My hand is too fat to wear mine anymore," she said.
  "We've been married for ten years, " I told her.
   "Well God bless ya honey! I read things about people in the papers and I just don't
 know what people are thinking. Back in my day we knew the meaning of commitment. We were married for 52 years. In a few days he will have been gone for 7 years. It wasn't always easy, but then we were never promised roses."
  I smiled and said to her "I told my husband that I couldn't promise it would always be easy and I couldn't promise that it would always be fun. I could promise him that he would never be bored."
She chuckled. We both wished each other a good day. I went  back into the pharmacy.
  Her words stuck with me though. The part that struck me the most was "we knew the meaning of commitment."  She's right. The throw away mentality that we seem to have now didn't really exist back then. People took care of what they had. They mended it. They threw things away only when they couldn't be mended or couldn't be used.
   These days we toss things away without thinking of it. We exchange our phones and electronic devices for the newest things. There's nothing wrong with the old one, it's just well...old. Everything is disposable. If you're bored with it, throw it away and get a new one.
  I think that we are starting to be like that with people too. With social networking it's easy to unfriend someone because there is really no personal contact. When someone gets old is or simply deemed too much trouble to deal with we can let their phone calls go to voicemail and delete their messages. People go into and out of relationships fairly quickly. If you do get married and things get rough, well you can always get a divorce. It's no big deal. No one really cares and then you can move on to the next one.
 Commitment seems like an old fashioned and out of date notion. It's too limiting. It's booorrrrinnng.
 I think commitment is the glue that keeps things together. When you get a group of people who are committed to a cause great  things can happen. When you get someone who is committed to helping another person better themselves changes can happen. If you see someone who is committed to rising above circumstances that are keeping them down miracles can happen.
  Commitment is nothing to fear. It is a chance to learn. A chance to grow. A chance to do something positive and maybe even have a little fun.