THURSDAY THOUGHTS - The Missing Manuscript

About two weeks ago I was nearing completion on a writing project I have been working on for quite some time. It is the history of a remarkable woman who hired me to compile her story. Because I work full time, I have been able to devote mostly Sunday mornings to completing this project. As the end drew near (so near that I could almost taste it) the last 35 pages simply vanished! I did not press delete or anything remotely close to it. I gasped in horror and frantically tried to find the missing pages. I am sure that a few choice words escaped my lips that I will not include in this post! My son and his wife came that evening to Sunday dinner and they both tried to recover the missing portion of the manuscript with no success.

I was livid and almost physically ill, as I thought of the time it would take to recreate these pages and finish the job. My son said to me,"Mom it isn't the end of the world," and I am sure I shot him a glance that warned him to silence himself before I decked him!

I decided that the best course of action was to stay away from the manuscript for a while until I could regain a proper sense of perspective and the emotions of the entire scenario had dissipated a bit. While I was reading before work the next day, I came upon the following thought by McLandburgh Wilson:

"Twixt optimist and pessimist
The difference is droll:
The optimist sees the doughnut,
The pessimist, the hole.

The thought hit me that in this case I was certainly being a pessimist. As my son had said, it truly was NOT the end of the world. I had a hard hand written copy to work from as I retyped so I didn't have to recreate the manuscript from scratch out of my head. I could have lost the entire book, but lost only the last three chapters. I then remembered the encouraging fact that I am Cancer free and have the energy and ability to complete this project, while a wonderful girl who I consider to be my adopted daughter, just underwent a double mastectomy. Another life long friend of mine just got the news that his wife has AIL (Lou Gehrig's Disease) I then thought of my mother who retired as a most successful secretary. She couldn't type now even if she wanted to due to the arthritis which has knarled her fingers so badly she would be unable to hit any desired keys at all. To put it mildly, I was being childish and small minded.

I read another thought by Confucius who said, "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." Who knows? Maybe the manuscript will end up being better after the 35 pages are recreated. In reality, it will take me eight to ten hours and another month to get the draft ready for the family to read. So, after gaining control of my attitude, and counting my blessings, I sat at the computer invigorated some two weeks later to complete the project. I began typing with a positive outlook....and I smiled.

Kathy Christensen