Article May 5, 1980 Issue

Pull your own end of the saw

VIRGINIA F. KUEMMIN

We were sawing wood but weren't doing a very good job. My friend and I were using a two-man crosscut saw. I would pull my end of the saw, then push it back toward him. The teeth of the saw would catch and grind and make the job very slow. Finally my friend said, "Just pull your own end of the saw. Then let me pull mine. Don't push it back to me." I realized I'd been trying to do his work as well as my own.

As my husband and I returned home that night from our visit with this friend, the light dawned. "Just pull your own end of the saw. Let the other person pull his." This was exactly what I needed to learn in my own life.

I had been going through self-doubt, despair, and confusion. In raising two little girls, who brought an immense amount of joy into our lives, I had thought I was at every point trying to be a good mother. The whole experience with them up to the midteen years had been really wonderful.

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