Words

On this Sunday afternoon, I am thinking about the old admonition to "say what you mean, and mean what you say." And, that brings to mind a memory from the early 1990s when I was stationed in New Mexico. At a nearby university, there was a secretary who had two very energetic little boys. I stopped by her office one day and asked how she was doing. She spoke of the challenges of working and keeping up with her rambunctious young sons. Then, she shared something that caught me by surprise. Her disclosure was that, every night when her sons were asleep, she thanked God that there was one less day to deal with them. I know in my heart that she would not have traded either of those unruly little boys for all of the wealth in the world. She had said something that she really did not mean.

A few months later, this secretary (31 yrs-old) was admitted to the hospital where I worked. She was scheduled for a tonsillectomy which can be much more difficult for an adult than it is for a child. On the morning of surgery, a chill went through my body when I heard "Code Blue" announced over the intercom, and the location was in the Operating Room. I ran to the OR, knowing that it was this secretary who had crashed. It broke my heart when I saw that she was hemorrhaging, and the surgeons were having a very difficult time getting the bleeding stopped. No one expected this wife and mother to die on that morning when she went into the Operating Room to have a tonsillectomy. But, she did. There would not be another day to "deal with" those energetic little boys.

I do not even remember the secretary's name. And, I am not suggesting in any way that she was punished for saying those words about her little boys. It is just a poignant memory which serves as a reminder that I need to say what I mean, and mean what I say.