Demolition

My neighborhood has undergone some changes recently. A car dealership, a gas station and a restaurant have all been visited by the demolition squad. It is so strange to me to drive by a building one day and have only a dirt field there a day or two later. My husband and I actually got to view part of the "backhoe banging" on the restaurant. With one well placed thump from a large backhoe a wall came tumbling down. I couldn't help but think of the time and effort that went into constructing that building when it was first erected and now all that is left is a pile of rubbish.

There was a time when my youngest son thought that tearing down buildings would be the greatest job in the world. I tried to convince him that designing and building a structure would be a much more noble calling, but he wouldn't have any of that. I guess it's the boy in him. You know, it's a proven fact, if you give a boy a stick or a dowel or pretty much anything made of breakable wood and ask him to throw it away, prior to its entry into the trash can it will be thoroughly demolished.

Sometimes I think I enjoy being part of the demolition crew as well. At least in the way I treat my family and interact with them. I am way to willing to tear down and destroy rather than try to build up. Being positive and uplifting takes effort. Being negative comes way to easily to me. I need to remember that it is much more noble and important to be a builder and not a destroyer.

Don't be yourself - be someone a little nicer. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966