I was reading the obituaries last night and while engrossed in reading them this statement popped out at me. A woman by the name of Dorothy passed away and someone wrote; “Dorothy cast everlasting warmth on anyone who crossed her path.” I did not know the person but after reading what the author said of her, I wished that I had known her. I wished that she had cast some of her everlasting warmth on me. The more I think about it, the more I believe that is one of the nicest things a person can say about another. True, it seems those nice things are usually said about a person lying in a casket. However, I hope Dorothy, that Dorothy, was able to hear it while she was still alive. It seems politicians and the wealthy are the people who get the nicest things said and written about them while they are still alive. They appear to be the great ones. Will Rogers said that; “He had never met a person that he didn’t like”. Would that we could all say that. I have met with and spent a short time with a lot of people in my 85 years of life and I, too, can say I haven’t met many people that I did not like. People, like Dorothy, whom I believe I could have been friends with, people whom I would have enjoyed working and socializing with because I could feel their warmth and goodness.
I have sometimes thought that it is not the people, it’s the way we look at people! Are we always looking for the warmth in others, for their love, their goodness? Or, are we looking for their most human and earthly attributes, their selfishness, their stubbornness, their dark side? You do know, don’t you, that we each, have all those various capacities within us? They are different attributes and social behaviors that represent our various faces. We don’t want to admit we have multiple faces, but we do. I remember seeing the movie, ‘The Three Faces of Eve’, and, at the start of the 1957 movie, the British-born journalist Alistair Cooke, who narrates the film, appears on camera to tell viewers that the incredible tale they are about to see is a true story. It was not one suggested by, or based on, something that happened, but a facsimile of actual events. Eve had multiple personalities as have many others. It is not a totally uncommon phenomenon. Eve was three people in one. I have no idea how many my wife got when she accepted me as her husband. But I’m sure, she could identify several, at least.
I may be being a little facetious here but not entirely. I am not alone for I have met several of my earthly associates who had extreme emotions. They would be perfectly kind and reasonable one minute and then, it seemed, the opposite of that the next minute, being mean and acting unreasonably.
When we look at the human condition, we see an individual, when in reality we are a montage. Defined as the technique of producing a new composite whole but from fragments of pictures, text, or music. We are made up of everything that we have seen, heard, done and experienced in any way. But! Surprisingly, greatness often emerges from the smoke and vapor. I am even inclined to believe that greatness emerges more often than does an Eve, or the unpredictable ones, mentioned above. Why? Because I believe we were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26; “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”) And we were given dominion, as well. With a legacy like that, how can we not be great. We, at least, have the potential to become great, to have some greatness? Especially, if we follow the admonitions of the Savior. President Gordon B. Hinckley said; “We must surely realize that there can be no true worship of Him who is Christ without giving of ourselves…If we give such service, our days will be filled with joy and gladness. More important, they will be consecrated to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and to the blessing of all whose lives we touch.”
It is hard to put ourselves out there where we may be rejected and turned away. I think of the young missionaries who knock on various doors every day all day long. Never knowing what might be on the other side of that door. Yet, they continue to move from door to door with the hope that there will be one who will listen and accept. We, too, can knock once in a while, just to see if there is someone on the other side that we can bless.