WHAT WILL YOU PUT IN YOUR BOX?

“Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your good health has vanished.”

Og Mandino quotes (American Essayist and Psychologist, 1923-1996)


Joe was a fifty-year-old Iowa optometrist who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. He decided to continue to practice as long as he felt capable, but eventually the tumor would win out.

One cold January day, he drove to work as he had for more than twenty years and began a typical morning. After he had completed a few eye examinations, he was startled to find something subtle had changed in his motor skills. It hit him hard to realize that his health had finally deteriorated to the point where he could no longer work. All the years of education and career challenges suddenly stopped; it was time for him to go.

Without notifying his staff, Joe found a small cardboard box to pack up his belongings. He walked around from room to room searching for the treasures of his life, gathering all the personal items that he wanted to take along. But now the common things that he had used daily took on a new and different value. He was amazed at the simple mementos he collected. The picture of his three daughters when they were toddlers crammed into a wading pool, the fathers day present of a mug that read ”World’s Greatest Dad”, framed pieces of art that one of his daughters painted in grade school, and many other small tokens of love from family and friends that filled the box with twenty years of joy. Not one item in the box had anything to do with his career; everything had to do with the people he loved.

Joe walked to the front desk where his staff standing by and quietly announced, "I'm done.” Then he limped to the door, clutching his precious box, and left work for the last time.

-- Patrick J. Foy, DDS