OBSERVATIONS FROM A TRAIN...ON THE WAY TO WORK....

It's a hard life after all, it's a hard, hard, life....

As I sit in the train, I look about me. I see a wrinkled old lady, lugging two heavy shopping bags full of gift-wrapped boxes. Did she spend her last dime for these gifts? Will the recipient appreciate her good intentions – or will she still be considered “the old nag?”

There, sits a shabbily clothed man. A brown paper lunch bag rests on his lap. He looks beaten – tired and overworked, unappreciated and under-estimated. He probably works too many hours – and all this, for what? So that his wife can keep up with the Jones’? (or the Schwartz') So that his children are not deprived of anything? And is his family grateful for all this – or do they demand more of him?

Here stands a woman, deep in thought. Are her thoughts cheerful – or is she thinking about the argument she had with her husband this morning? Does she dread going home to him?

I see a young man carrying a bouquet of flowers. Are these flowers for his mother who is in the hospital, dying? Or are they for the woman whom he wishes to impress? If so, will she act or react as he expects her to?

In all aspects of life, people try so hard to please, and suffer so much in the process. Their suffering, however, would be diminished or even forgotten if only their well-meant efforts were appreciated.

I sit here and watch. Practically all the people about me are tired or depressed, or worried, or heart broken, or confused, or………

What a sad world it seems to be.
Any thoughts on my thoughts?? Do you ever feel this way? And don't tell me that I'm being unduly gloomy.....it's reality.