Toll

Yesterday, an old lady had a heart attack.  Her last words were to her children who had been bickering, "Because you all were fighting, no one bothered to watch the elevator, and now I have a heart attack."  As she slowly walked down the street off into the distance, I knew that I would never see her again.

I awoke in tears, only to be ridiculed by the trombonist.  Amidst the jocularity, there still existed an element of sympathy.  I'd shed tears over a character from a book, but the message rings clear - how many problems could we avoid if only we would listen?

The art of listening is not easy, but its possibilities are endless.  Wisdom and insight come at a price, and we pay for it in suffering.  And so I gladly suffer, but let us not suffer needlessly.