Beware the Beetles of Life

There is a story told by Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick that is a perfect lesson for happiness and success in life:

On the slope of Long’s Peak in Colorado lies the rum of a gigantic tree.  Naturalists tell us that it stood for some four hundred years.  It was a seedling when Columbus landed at San Salvador, and half grown when the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth.  During the course of its long life it was struck by lightning fourteen times, and the innumerable avalanches and storms of four centuries thundered past it.  It survived them all.  In the end, however, an army of beetles attacked the tree and leveled it to the ground.  The insects ate their way through the bark and gradually destroyed the inner strength of the tree by their tiny but incessant attacks.  A forest giant which age had not withered, nor lightning blasted, nor storms subdued, fell at last before beetles so small that a man could crush them between his forefinger and his thumb.

Often, people survive the big things: The threat of death, getting fired, or serious illness.  But it is the small things – the squeaking screen door, a broken air conditioner, the repeating quarrels in an unhappy marriage – that wear down the spirit.  These are the things people let go, putting off until tomorrow.  Yet, somehow, tomorrow never comes and the constant drip of irritation eventually makes life unbearable.

Beware the beetles.  Crush them while they are small.

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