Article August 10, 1992 Issue

Smudges

Christ enables us to gain a better, purer view of ourselves and others.

Robert Dudley Lewis

Walking to work one morning, I found myself reminiscing over my teenage years—particularly upon Saturday morning chores. Washing windows was one of them. No matter how much I tried—and my mother assured me it was not hard enough—I never got a window spotless on the first pass. Some smudges were always on the other side.

As I thought back to those Saturday mornings, it suddenly struck me: "That smudge thing is no different from the problem that's been troubling me recently."

The problem was an uneasy tension that had developed between a friend and me as the result of a clash that had taken place many years before. Despite my attempts to forget it, I remembered it quite often. Each time I thought about the person I would think of the unpleasant situation. Oh, we were courteous enough to each other outwardly. But my perception of this friend was constantly being affected by my recollection of the conflict.

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