splinters: a life lesson of sorts

Today a work buddy asked me to remove a splinter for him. I actually said “nah” at first because, well, I’ve never removed a splinter from someone before. A year ago, I couldn’t see well enough to be any help. But T did say please. And he did remind me he recently lost the tip of his middle finger on the other hand. What are ya gonna do. =)

Lesson no. 1: When your friend asks for help, you lend a hand! no. 2: Jump in and try new things.

The splinter had been in his finger for days but now he was annoyed enough to want it out. Lesson no. 3: Things that start out as minor nuisances eventually irritate us enough that we will no longer put up with them.

So I took the tweezers he had and they were no good. Very weak, cheap tweezers. After picking for a minute, we decided to get a needle. Lesson no. 4: In life, you need the proper tools.

As I stood there digging into my friend’s finger with a needle, he told me he was tough so don’t be afraid to dig in. He has a high pain threshold. So I dug in and we got that splinter out.  And right there, right there is the lesson speaking to me tonight:

no 5: Life is full of splinters. You have to be tough. You have to get the foreign objects out. You have to dig in.  You have to try, try again.

Yes, all this from a mere 5 minutes of nothing important.