All Good News

The Man Who Stopped Complaining by Colin Hall

He had been complaining to anyone who would listen. Even a quiet moan to himself. His thoughts reached as high as complaining to God, whoever and wherever and indeed, if ever He existed.

It does not do any good at all to complain. Ask anyone who has ever tried to get through to MPs about how they milk the system to the cost of the electorate. Or those who try to make bankers see the errors of their ways and at least feel some guilt. It just does not work.

The other evening something struck him and through the night and this morning he had been sorting it all out in his head. It was a similar experience to what Paul had had on the road to Damascus. Like Paul’s, this could be a life-changing experience for him.

He didn’t think it was related to religion, but these things are so complicated that it very well could have been. At least he was not aware of any religious influence. It was like a little spark which flashed in his mind and said, “You are a very lucky man. It’s not everyone who gets to live and stay so close all the time to the one they love.”

He thought, “I am that man! I am her carer, and now that she has to be looked after 24/7, we are never apart. It is as though we were attached by one of those baby harnesses that our two girls wore in their early years. To guide them and keep them safe. Eventually they grew strong and steady enough to be released from the harness which kept them safe and they became more independent. They moved on to the next phase of their lives.”

He wondered if this was leading to the “next phase”. Wherever and whatever that was going to be.

So for now, instead of wishing he was playing cricket or golf with the lads. Or thinking, “Please leave them on the table and I will put them away or I will never find them again. Or wishing she would give up asking him the same questions over and over again.

He quietly smiles to himself and thinks how lucky he is to be consulted, trusted, looked up to, relied on for everything, and most important of all, believed in.

He has a lot to live up to. In return he has the love of the most precious person he has ever known.

He is a very lucky man and excited about the prospect of another day being so close to his wife.