Column by Dr. Ann Hollingsworth
I recently read an inspirational story of a science teacher’s demonstration in which he put a one gallon metal can without the lid on a Bunsen burner and heated it. When the can became hot, the teacher put the lid on really tight and set the can on his desk while he continued to teach. After a few minutes the can started crackling and popping and then became crushed as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. The teacher explained that the atmospheric pressure outside the can caused the can to crush because there was a vacuum inside.
The point of inspiration for us people is that often the pressures of life “crush” us or not depending on how big the vacuum is on the inside of us or how big the reserves of strength for living is. This reminds me of the fact I often here that problem resolution is really up to our reaction to the problem versus the problem itself.
Our strength for living comes from our values and our internal moral compass that keeps us pointed toward a life lived well. If we adhere to the popular philosophy of anything goes, when life pressure pushes on us, the needle of our inside compass will just move around and point nowhere. We will flounder on what to do. On the other hand, if we have a set of values that we live by, when life pressure comes along, our inside compass will point us to those values. Those values inside of us will push back on the life pressures and protect us against the crushing that could then interfere with living well for a while.
Pressures of life are a given. It is to us as to what we put inside to withstand the pressure.
