More Food For Thought

Burdens may be what keeps us going

BECKLEY — Editor's Note: This column by the late Bev Davis originally was published in April 2002. Davis passed away Aug. 1, 2010, of a sudden illness. The Register-Herald will continue to publish her previous columns. 

 

 The older I get, the more I complain. Little things I used to overlook seem to become mountains.  Routine activities become burdens.  Maybe I was due for a little story I heard this weekend. 

  An old grandfather clock had stood through three generations in the parlor of a quaint country home.  A great-great-grandson who inherited the property was looking at the clock one day. Amazed that it had never missed a minute, he wondered how the aging timepiece could function so well with the heavy weight attached to a chain in the center.  Hoping to remove a burden from the cherished heirloom, the boy removed the weight.  The clock stopped.  "Why did you remove my weight?" the clock asked.  "To relieve you of your burden," he answered.  "Put it back, please. It's the very thing that keeps me going," the clock replied.  Well, there you have it. Burdens are the very things that give our lives meaning and purpose.

Rita