I haven’t stopped thinking about this story since I heard it
in church yesterday. Granted it
reads like a chain email, without the eerie “forward to 15 people within 15
minutes or die”. But why take the
risk?
“A woman stopped to buy a magazine and some cookies before
rushing to the airport gate for her departing flight, only to find it had been
delayed a few moments. She sat in
an empty chair, put her stuff beside her and began to flip through her magazine while enjoying her first cookie. To her surprise, a man on the other side of her things reached his hand into the bag as well. Completely appalled, she
glared at him. Stone faced, he
maintained the stare as she went for cookie number two. So did he, and the showdown continued. Now infuriated, her hand plunged into
the bag once more. She stared at
him, much like a lion protecting it’s kill, until he reached into the bag and
removed the very last cookie. Just then, as they called for boarding, he broke the cookie in half and shared it with her. Frazzled, the woman headed down the jetway, took her seat and settled
in, no doubt hoping the unoccupied chair beside her would not become that of
the cookie bandit. Thankfully, it
wasn’t. Now ready for a relaxing
journey, she reached into her purse to grab the magazine once more, but
pulled out her bag of cookies, still full.”
In it’s simplest terms, this story
is a good reminder that things aren’t always what they seem. (He didn’t eat her cookies, people; she
ate his.) Take it a step further and
you’ll see that sometimes we are the ones taking from the people we believe are taking from us. But my favorite lesson to take
from the story is this… Always share your cookies.
