Writing in sand....

I heard a story the other day.

A man was travelling through the desert with a friend. Something happened, and they quarrelled. (The story doesn't specify exactly what transpired between the two friends.)

The argument got more heated, and finally, this man slapped his friend hard across the cheek. The friend held his cheek for a while, and then wrote something on the sand, "My best friend slapped me." He then continued walking.

The two friends continued working. After a while, the man could hold his curiosity no longer. He just had to ask what the siginificance of his friend's actions were.

The friend replied, "I was very angry when you slap me. But I knew you didn't mean to do it, so I kept my temper, and did not retaliate. My writing on the sand was to express my disappointment with you."

The guy still didn't get it. "But why write on the sand?"

"Because sand can be easily smoothen over by the winds of time. The writing in the sand will only stay for a short time, until the next time a wind blows over the horizon, and erases whatever hurt, disappointment and anger that was printed into the sand by human hands."

"I may be hurt by your show of temper, angered by your hard-handedness towards me, a friend. I may be disappointed that my friend will choose to treat me as such over a minor skirmish. But because this friendship is important and precious to me, I will not allow little things to eat away at the friendship like maggots. But I choose to write all these things on a forgiving surface. I will choose to hold no grudge, and allow the winds of forgiveness to wipe the slate clean. So now, the winds have come and blown away the past. We're friends again."

A cheesy and moralistic story. But I like it, for the principle it contains.

What's the point of holding a grudge and staying angry, somebody please tell me...

I admit it feels good to envision the most cruel and torturous of revenges against someone who may have hurt or angered us. But hey, you're the one who can't sleep at night because you're just so mad, while the person you're mad at, is sleeping like a wee baby.

What it does to us, is to eat into us, like some form of cancer, eating away at our peace and our joy and confidence, until it leaves us a snivelling wreck of a human being, uptight and ready to explode like a human bomb at any stupid little thing that comes along.

What kind of a miserable pathetic form of existence is that I ask you?

So, do yourself a favour, start writing in sand today....

If the whole world learned to write in sand, this world will be a better place I should think....