I overheard a cell phone conversation the other day in the elevator – you know the kind, the ones you have to overhear, no matter how much you wish they’d be quiet? The woman talking on her iPhone had just changed topics from her yearly vacation to Europe and had started complaining about her sister.
“She just stays home all day with her kids and getting pregnant on welfare, while I have to work. And my kid was upset that I was going to work today. God, it’s just not fair that she gets to stay with her kid all day!”
And then she got off the elevator.
It’s a beautiful parable for a lot of the things that go on in our lives. The rich sister (at least comparatively) was jealous of the time her sister spent at home without working. I suspect the poor sister would have liked to have an iPhone or traveled yearly to Europe. What neither sister recognizes is that they have both made valid choices in their lives. They are both important. They are both okay.
Maybe they each want to re-evaluate their priorities, or take time to assess all the good things their lives bring them.
But please, please, please let it not take another remake of “The Parent Trap” for them to see the error of their ways.