The Anatomy of Peace

I did something this month I haven't done in a very long time: I finished the book for book club before our monthly meeting. That was an accomplishment.

The book was called The Anatomy of Peace, and even though I really didn't care for the storyline (there was none to be honest), the message was one everyone should really take to heart. See people as people with the same fears, hopes, dreams and not as objects to change and coerce

However, I'm not here to talk about the book per se. There was a story in there that reminded me of a situation that happened in our home this evening.

We just finished having the rest of the cabinetry installed this week. One piece included a window seat in the bay window, and the kids and I were standing in front of it playing the chimes when Alex, the littlest at 15 months, decided to help himself to a chime and bang away on the beautiful cherry top. Oops!

Tyler came in to see what the commotion was about, surveyed the damage (5 little dents), and calmly walked away. That took a lot of control to not get angry and this show of control reminded me of the following story in my book club book.

The story begins with the son telling how he grew up on a small farm, harvesting apples. His parents never had money as he was growing up and drove a beat up old truck for transportation. Shortly after this boy turned 16, the family bought a new car. One evening he wanted to show the car off to his friends and asked his dad if he might take the car instead of the truck to run some errands. The dad, sensing the boy's excitement, agreed and handed over the keys. As the son was backing out of the driveway, he remembered he'd forgotten his wallet in the house and ran back in to retrieve it. He came out of the house and noticed the car was missing and knew it had ended up in the river which ran below their home. He ran down around the corner to see the headlights of his dad's car shining at him out of the water.

What was he going to say to his dad? He was terrified to face him. He slowly walked back to the farmhouse, found his dad in his favorite chair reading the paper. He quietly recounted what had happened to the car and waited for the backlash. However, what happened next remained with him forever. His father reached to turn the page of the newspaper and responded without looking up, "Well, I guess you'll have to take the truck then."

Wow. I can't say I would have handled that situation so graciously. There have been many instances where I've gotten angry too quickly and forget that people are more important. Although in the picture below I did remember telling myself it really was not big deal that there were broken eggs all over the kitchen and even thought to snap this particular picture of Nathan before we cleaned up the mess.
I give Tyler a lot of credit tonight for not getting upset that we were all standing there and could have intercepted that chime so easily. When I'm yelling and slamming doors, he's the calming voice and I really admire that quality in him.