Author : Cy Eberhart
It was the program at my service club's weekly luncheon meeting – a film, a simple film, really. No special effects, no musical crescendos, just a short filming about a man named Leo. It ended with most of us in deep thought. A bank president's summed up our collective thoughts."Do you get the feeling you haven't done as much with your life as you might?"Leo was a man in his 60's at the time of the filming – dwarfed and extremely
deformed. In fact, one of the most physically impaired persons I had seen. Even so
nothing in the film made you feel sorry for him. Rather you thought about yourself
and what you were doing with your life.The film showed Leo as a proud, independent owner of a one-man business, a
shopkeeper – of sorts. His shop was portable. It was a large, moveable case that
when opened, displayed his wares of sundry items such as pencils, writing paper
and the like.Leo lived on a farm with his uncle. An old hand-built combination wooden wagon
and scooter gave him mobility around the house and farm. Some years after he
reached manhood his mother died, and with the help of his uncle they outfitted a
tractor with a small crane. Each working day Leo struggled to board the tractor,
operate the crane to hoist his profitable business with its cart onto the tractor and
drive into the nearby town.He parked his rig on the street in the town's business district. Then he began his
arduous routine of opening for business. Aided by the crane he laboriously moved
his store from the tractor onto the sidewalk. Next he maneuvered himself onto his
cart and, using his feet, pushed up to the store. With gnarled fingers he patiently
removed the metal nuts from the bolts that held some of the wooden fixtures on the
front of the store crate. Once loosed he rearranged the parts and tightened the
nuts again. With that task done he used his feet to push himself and his cart up
onto the sidewalk and sat in front of his store. Open for business. The display sign
on his cart read: "Satisfaction Guaranteed."Leo was a business man; the cart and container, his business establishment.
There on the sidewalk he sold his merchandise. To complete any transaction, he
spread his coins on a flat surface, and carefully counted the proper change for his
customers. He would accept no more than a fair market price. An honest price for
honest service.Leo had been doing this for years, ever since his mother died. She had cared for him
and protected him from the harshness of the world. But once on his own he wanted
to establish his independence. He was proud to be in business and frugal with his
earnings. He used part of it to pursue his life goal: "Helping those who were less
fortunate" than he.We watched the final scene with sorrow. It showed Leo driving his tractor
down the country road to his home after his day's work. But the sorrow we felt was
not for Leo, it was for ourselves. The film turned our focus inward, and as a bank
president said at its conclusion, "It makes you wonder what you're doing with your
life?"The inspiration of Leo was not that he overcame a severe handicap, although
he certainly did that. But in watching him drive off into the distance, we knew we
were watching a man who had found life where it matters – within. We knew there
was no substitute for that. If we don't find life within ourselves, we won't find it at
all.(c) Cy Eberhart 2006As a hospital chaplain Cy Eberhart, (now retired) was a firsthand witness to the
entire spectrum of human emotions: personal successes and failures; the deepest
despairs and the great peaks of joy. Two questions remained foremost in his mind:
How was it that some could find inner strengths that brought courage and hope and
others could not? What was to be learned from these experiences that would have a
positive and creative effect for daily, routine living?His lectures, writings, workshops, book In the Presence of Humor and his living-history
performances of America's famed humorist
Will Rogers offers some of the
answers.
Keyword : happiness,well being,stress,self reflection,confidence,imagination,coping,insight,inspiration,persev
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