Transcription
Some years ago, my wife and I were eating in one of these more exclusive burger restaurants. And as we're sitting there, a family walks in, a husband, wife, two kids. They settle down.
A waiter comes over to take their order. The husband orders the full deal. You know, the double burger, salad, mushroom, vegan cheese, the whole lot. And at the top he wants a sunny side egg. And he says to the waiter, "Make sure the yolk is runny."
So off the waiter goes, comes back some minutes later with this very, very tall burger. Everything's there. And at the top there's this egg. The bun is on the side so it won't break the egg. As the plate is coming down to hit the table, the man has already got his fork in his hand and he stabs the yolk of the egg. And unfortunately, the yolk doesn't run.
The man turns to the waiter and says, "What was it about make the yolk runny that you didn't understand? Take this away and bring me what I ordered." So, off the waiter goes. And it actually took two more times before the man was satisfied with what he'd received. He stabbed the yolk. The yellow dripped down the pile. And then he turns to the waiter and says, "Now, wouldn't it have been so much simpler if you just done what I asked the first time?" And then without saying thank you, he just waved the guy away.
Now, I don't know this person. Never met him before. But I know people like this. And unfortunately, they're never happy because they're so focused on what's missing. They're so focused on the imperfections that it's difficult for them to find any simha in life. When we focus on the negative, we become unhappy. We're harming ourselves. We're becoming mean-spirited.
And more than that, the writes in Salash that when we are walking around with with nugas, when we are constantly complaining, we'll start complaining about people too. So, it's all about the focus. When it rains and it's wet, can we see through to the beauty of the fact that seeds are going to develop and grow in the ground? When things don't go quite the way we want it, can we see it as half full rather than half empty? And when we see imperfect people, because all people are imperfect, are we able to focus on their shining beautiful nama and the wonderful aspects about them? And if we do, we'll find that our speech will follow and our mouth will flow with compliments instead of insults.
The Gmorrah tells us that Hashem looks at us the way we look at others. So I give us all a braha that we should be za that as we change our perspectives on other people, so we will feel and experience Hashem seeing us in a positive light too.