Tags
200 words, caring, community, compassion, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, doing the right thing, integrity, kids, learning, living in the moment, Mothers
Do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, not because you want something in return. ~ unknown
He’s lost his head, but still has his hat!
One day, a young mother and her son built a snowman outside my window.
It was a cold night. Mother and son were dressed for the arctic, completely covered up except for their eyes peeking out from their scarves.
They rolled three huge snowballs and stacked them one on top of the other.
When the snowman had a face and branches for arms, they placed a hat on his head.
Since then we’ve had more snowfalls, more wind, some warmer days and flash freezes. The snowman has lost his hat many times.
Always, someone notices it gone, retrieves it and puts it back on his head. One woman at first just walked past, then returned, picked up the hat and put it back on his head – as if it was the right thing to do.
~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~
It’s easy to put a hat on a snowman, but it isn’t as easy to do the right thing in real life…
…or is it?
What a great anecdote. It helps to intuitively believe in what you do..no matter what.
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Yes it does. Thanks Jean!
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I love this, Diana. Perfect and lovely. *goes outside to look for hatless snowmen* 😀
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🙂 thanks and good luck on your hatless snowmen journey!
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😀
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No green …. To be seen !!
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(smiling) nope. Not one bit! 😉
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A great story that reminds us of the goodness of people.
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Thanks my dear!
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It’s been bugging me that I went too deep (as per usual): on this post…
I would definitely have been fixing the Snowman’s errant chapeau (after all, you wouldn’t want it going missing altogether, right?; ) just like I’d stop to deadhead a few spent blooms from the geraniums or pansies in a street side flower pot so that they would continue to live (and bloom again: )
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You make me smile Deb! I like when you go deep! 🙂
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( :Blushing: )
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Another awesome thought provoker, Diana!
Like Wyrd Smyth mentioned, doing the right thing can cost us, and sometimes we’re not prepared to sacrifice what we’d need to, in order to do the right thing.
This reminds me of those “What would you do?” style shows, where they show real people dealing with challenging situations. It’s amazing to see what people will or won’t do in these scenarios. At the end of watching them I tend to cease my judgement, because I come to the conclusion that although I’d like to believe I’d always do the right thing, one can really never be sure what you’d do given a real situation, especially a challenging one.
I’d like to think I’d stop to put Mr. Snowman’s hat back on without hesitation. 😀
~Andrea<3
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I love that show, “What would you do?”!
I’m pretty sure you’d put his hat on too Andrea, then you would snap a photo and write about him!
Diana xo
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Hahaha – I love that, Diana! So true! 😀
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For some it is easy to always do the right thing for some of us we try to do the right think and then there are those who never think to do what is right they just do what they want and to hell with everyone else.
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The world has all kinds of people, for sure!
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What a great story! It’s wonderful how community members have become engaged and help take care of the snowman.
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Yes. Even though he’s not real, they’re compelled to ‘make it right.’
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love this
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Glad you enjoyed it!
Diana xo
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Love this story. I don’t think it’s easy to do the right thing, but when we don’t ..something in us shrinks.
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That’s a good way of putting it Kristi.
Diana xo
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I love that 🙂
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Thank you my dear!
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Lovely cute story.
As for how easy (or not) it is to do the right thing…….
I will have to keep thinking on that for while……
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Thanks Elizabeth. I think that’s true for all of us.
Diana xo
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The cost of doing the right thing can be high; it can include your liberty, your reputation, your job or even your life. So my answer is that, as a general rule, no, it’s not that easy. If only it was! I’d go so far as to say that a key reason people here did the right thing was because it was trivially easy. Having to truly step up is the real test of character.
[Such as, say, oh, I dunno, someone who quits her day job in order to focus on community service? :grin:]
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On the other hand, what’s often pretty easy: Knowing what the right thing to do is.
But that’s not always easy, either. The classic example is the lifeboat scenario. Do you let some die (or actually kill them) to insure the survival of others?
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Oh my. I hope I never have to something like that!
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Thanks Smitty – what a lovely thing to say!
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once we built a snow wall about 5 feet high in our front yard.
There is something about creating in the snow that brings a shared joy.
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Did you do that as a child?
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No, I was the grown-up. We had a big plastic bin that was just right to fill up, pack down and turn into giant bricks. My daughters and I spent an afternoon during a snow storm building the wall. It was an imposing wall.
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Oh wow! That sounds fun and I’m sure it’s a memory that your daughters treasure in their hearts. 🙂
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yes, they periodically say… remember that time we made the awesome snow fort That’s the great thing about snow – if you play in it, it isn’t bad at all.
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That’s very true!
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Love this post. 🙂
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Thanks Jennifer! xo
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I love this! Thanks Diana for this sweet post with its wise reminder of unseen kindnesses going on all around us. 🙂 ‘The right thing to do’. Just do it! xo Gina
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Thanks Gina, so glad you enjoyed it!
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It’s a simple question – at first glance…
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What do you mean?
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Well to me, as with your examples here, it’s instinctual for people to “do the right thing”
But then there are the situations where all of the “what ifs” pop up, like in the case of the “good Samaritan”… What happens if I make things worse and they sue me? What happens if I get involved in someone else’s (possibly dangerous) trouble?
Unfortunately, life is complicated…
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Yes. It. Is.
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Sounds like that person went through a little struggle with themselves before they came back and put the hat back on the snowman. I have done things like that – like with chores when I just want to get away with doing the minimal and then go back and just do that extra something because I hear my mother’s voice (doesn’t always indicate the right thing to do, but she’s often right) 😛
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haha I do that too! It’s like ‘sigh…I’ve done this much, may as well do that one extra thing…’
You just reminded me of one of the ways I drove my mum nuts. I would lay on the floor while vaccuming with the old Singer machine! I could feel and hear the cells in her head popping ahaha
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LOL, I wonder how many (more; ) of us have the voice of our mother as our conscience?
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I love this… now I’d probably try the hat on first and take a photo and then put it back on the snowman…
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LOL, I wish I’d seen someone do something like that!
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