Our Decisions Create the World We Live In

By Jacqueline J. Marshall

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Often we think about creating our lives in terms of what we wish for ourselves. We can also create the world we want by thinking globally. I'd like to illustrate.

Over a decade ago my good friend Jennifer went through a divorce. Before moving to a new home, Jen called a piano retailer and registered her piano to be sold on consignment. Within a couple months, Jen received a hefty check from the piano retailer for the sale of her ivories. She used the "piano money" to furnish her new place.

A few years went by. Jennifer received a check in the mail for the sale of her piano. Huh? Did she dream that she was reimbursed years before? After checking her records Jen realized the piano shop had made a mistake. They'd paid her a second time for the same instrument. Jen knew the right thing to do. "But", she told me later, "I didn't want to send the check back just to be good or avoid a consequence. I don't know why, but I needed a better reason than doing the right thing. Crazy, huh? I thought I was loosing it."

One week went by, and another. Jennifer had come to believe if she was patient, she would discover a resolution to her self-imposed dilemma. Three weeks after receiving the second check, she did. She reported, "The reason I ended up sending check number two back is so simple. I returned it because I want to live in a world where people don't take advantage of one another or try to gain by another's loss."

"But you still did the right thing," I argued.

Jen replied, "More like the "life" thing. I didn't act as I was taught and I didn't think in terms of good or bad. In a small way I ah....created the world I want.....one where everyone can live without fearing everyone else. See? Simple."