Roses and Thorns

A cocker spaniel named Flossie was out walking with her people in a field in Cornwall, England.  The ground was squishy from a recent rain, but Flossie was enjoying the walk and ran barking though the grass, smelling sheep and a flushing out a partridge.  Coming over a rise, her people called her frantically.  A bull was in the field.  He pawed the ground, tossed his head and snorted. 

The people fled toward the gate, calling Flossie to run after them.  But Flossie didn’t run, she stood her ground and waited for the bull.  As was his habit, he charged after the people, but skidded to a stop in front of Flossie, who did not move.  Flossie’s people stopped running and stood still, anticipating the horror of watching their beloved pet being gored and flung into the air.

The bull snorted and thrust his horns at her.  Flossie reached up and licked his shiny nose.

Whatever the bull was angry about, he forgot it.  He wandered off, and Flossie trotted after her people.  They praised her to the skies, but she had simply done what dogs do best. 

A U.S. Army Reservist I know had her drill weekend a few days ago.  Afterward, she decided to join some friends going to an evening church service, and did not have time to go home to change out of her uniform.  Inspired by the sermon, they group of friends was walking to a nearby restaurant to grab some dinner, when they came across a homeless man clanging on a pot with a wooden spoon.  The homeless man was obviously annoying a young man who was a patron of a nearby restaurant. He had left his table at the sidewalk café and was berating the homeless man to quit banging on the pot.

When the annoyed diner spotted the Army Reservist in her uniform, he hollered at her: “Hey, aren’t you going to do something about this?  Get this guy to stop.  He’s being a pain in the butt and I’m trying to eat.”

The Reservist calmly walked up to the pair.  The homeless man beat on his pot a few more times.

“Sir,” said the Reservist to the young diner, “it seems to me that you have a good meal waiting for you, a warm car to get into, and money in your wallet to take you anywhere else in the city. This man does not. ”

The Reservist reached for her wallet and gave the homeless man $5.

The diner sputtered and the homeless man continued beating his pot with a spoon, but as the Reservist and her friends left, so did the diner.

Albert Schweitzer said: “Very little of the cruelty shown by men can reall be attributed to cruel instinct.  Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit." 

Peacekeeping forces must deal with thoughtlessness and inherited habit throughout the globe, yet the strongest and most compelling change can only come from within.  So I salute these forces which serve with all the passion and love attributed to the rose, yet remain likewise armed with thorns.