Editor’s note: My Annie is now five… but I wrote this article when she was still very newly four-years-old.

My daughter insists on having me come with her to the restroom. She announces “I gotta go potty.” That means I get to go with her into the bathroom.

It is just delightful when I’m in the right perspective because I get to sit with her and talk while she’s “making a pee pee”. On other days, I’m annoyed because I’ve got things to do. (It’s about perspective, right?)

Regardless of how I feel, when her bladder needs emptying, I follow.

One day, she and I are sitting together in the bathroom, and she tells me, “Poppa I got a funny story.” She goes on to tell me how when she was at preschool the other day the lid to the toilet bowl was not closed when she sat down. As a result, she fell right into the potty.

I asked, “Annie were you upset?” She said, “No, I laughed. It was funny. My tushie got wet.” She also rolled her eyes a little bit (which is very endearing at the age of four).

Her perspective on the incident was what impressed me. It’s all about perspective, after all. Frederic Nietzsche, the famous German philosopher once said, “There are no facts, only interpretations,” and I can’t help but agree with him. I’m delighted that my little girl didn’t get upset when she fell into the water. I’m delighted that her countenance and her sense of being was at least light enough on that day to give her a sense of joy.

Now how about you? When the crazy thing happens and you fall into the ‘proverbial toilet,’ do you laugh or do you get upset? I find with a lot of us that if it is something of huge magnitude, we’ll laugh. But if it is something small, we’ll get annoyed.

Now this doesn’t really make a lot of sense. In my view, it would seem the smaller the injury, the less upset we should be. That’s how Annie approached it when she found herself in that situation. But that’s not how it seems to be. Next time you find yourself in a similar predicament, I pray you approach it that way, too.

This week’s spiritual advice: Lighten up. It’s life.
 
Rabbi Brian
Religion Outside the Box – www.rotb.org
Email: rabbi_brian@rotb.org