think

One day while I was talking on the phone, my eight-year-old daughter wanted my attention. She had a problem that needed to be solved. I gave a motherly hang-on-just-a-minute gesture—my forefinger pressed to my lips—to indicate it would be awhile before I could help. She nodded and left a stack of playing cards on my desk, along with a note.

A short time later, I ended my phone conversation and read my daughter's words. They posed a simple question: Do I have a full deck? I knew she wanted me to help her count her playing cards, but I had to laugh. On occasion I'd asked myself that same question!

Growing up, I often heard the adults in my life refer to various people as being one card (or more) short of a full deck, a euphemism designed to gauge how with it someone was—or was not. As I got older, I gleaned the knowledge that we all must navigate many diverse circumstances in our lives, some not so varied, some vast; each shape us into who we become.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if, no matter our differences, we could strive to see the good in each other? True, there are those, even in our own families, whose life choices divide us on matters of principle. Still, we can choose to look for the good, the best, and accentuate the positive—even if that means we have to love someone from a distance. Author Wayne Dyer has said, "When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself."

Back to the old euphemism: I've learned many people—including myself—could, at least at one time or another in their lives, be accused of being a few cards short. I've also learned that it’s what we do with the cards we have that really counts.