MARY, OUR MOTHER

CHAPTER XLVI: TWO HEARTS OF WIT & WISDOM

Once upon a time a high school teacher examined and looked over the test-papers of his students, while they waited nervously for his verdict.
Finally the teacher got up, went to one student and said:
"You are lazy!"
To another boy: "You are lazy too."
"You there, in the last row, you too--you are lazy."
The exasperated teacher continued: "The truth is I am lazy also--we are all lazy!"
He threw the test-papers into the waste-basket and said:
"Look--somehow, by nature we human beings are all made LAZY. But the question is: 'DO YOU OVERCOME?' Do you overcome your laziness? Don't you remember, somebody said one day: 'We shall overcome!' "
After a long silence, the teacher continued:
"If you would recall, as a young fellow, growing up, your Mother would tell you, make up your room--wash the dishes--and you'd say:
"Do I have to?" You didn't want to do it.
"Mother was good enough to cook the dinner--serve it--so you can feed your face--and when you are all finished, you expected Mother single-handedly to clean up the mess and wash the dishes all by herself--while you ran over to the T.V. and sit on your rear-end watching hour after hour some T.V. nonsense--not doing your homework--goofing off--WHY--because you were lazy!
"You see, by nature, we are all in the same boat. The bottom line is: 'Do you overcome--your laziness?'
"By nature we all want to take short-cuts: between two points let's take the shortest way; which is O.K. however obviously we must avoid offending our neighbor, by being inconsiderate.
"For instance, you finish a soda-pop, now what are you going to do with the empty soda can, walking down the street? Throw it down, on the sidewalk, (be another litter-bug) or take the trouble to find a trashcan and throw it in. What will you do?"
Yes, the boys got the MESSAGE!

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