Penny for Your Thoughts

One of the most valuable lessons I learned in college was also one of the simplest.

A religion professor asked me to describe what I would see if I held a penny directly in front of my eye.

A penny, I answered.

What else, he asked?

Probably nothing, I said. If it was directly in front of my eye it would eclipse everything behind it.

Then, he asked what I would see if I took the same penny, taped it to a wall, and looked at it from across the room.

I would still see the penny, I said. But it would look much smaller, and I could also see everything around it.

He was illustrating the ability to keep life's challenges in perspective, an imagery that has always stayed with me.

When life's inevitable challenges arise, I do my best to tape the penny to the wall. To see the problem, but not be defined by it.

And speaking of pennies.

"I am not concerned that you have fallen," said Abraham Lincoln himself.

"I am concerned that you arise."