Perspective

Hello everyone. I thought I would share some of a chat that we had with the server at dinner last night. A bubbly and upbeat person, she was very open to conversation, so much so that I wondered whether or not other people in the restaurant were waiting for their food.  She beamed when she spoke about her six-year-old daughter. On a cruise ship she works six months straight - seven days a week - and then gets two months off. During those two months she sees her daughter, who lives with her grandmother in Jamaica. She spoke so happily of taking her to school during those two months.

She added that her dream is to save enough money one day to take her daughter on a cruise. She wants her daughter to see how hard people work on the cruise ships and wants her to know how hard she works to provide for her. When she said this, I said to her, "I'm sure your daughter already knows how hard you work and appreciates you and admires you and looks up to you."

I know that none of us has to look far to find a story like this, where a parent is struggling to provide for their child and to make ends meet, but chatting with this proud woman with such a beautiful upbeat smile really struck me. Here I am with about 6000 people on a cruise ship, all of whom I have enough expendable cash to enjoy a vacation like this. However, last nights server is one of about 1500 crew members who have economic challenges that most of us cannot imagine.

And yet, I'll bet within only one or two weeks, everyone of us who will walk off this cruise ship Sunday morning will at some point complain about something in our lives. I only hope that when my turn comes to complain about some nonsense I will remember the woman who served us last night, who beamed about her six-year-old daughter who she doesn't see much while she works so hard to provide for her, and her dream to bring her on a cruise one day.

I guess it's all about perspective.

I wish everyone a wonderful, and reflective day.