More on Great Laws

I've been thinking about Hakkarainen's Law of Great Events^™ lately. The law, briefly restated, is that, in any great event, such as a death, wedding, divorce, or other crisis, someone close to you will unexpectedly let you down.
Most recently, with the death of Sandra's father and the subsequent return of Sandra' mother to Holden, the wonderful people in our lives have delivered prodigies of compassion, comfort, and service. We've received notes and calls from afar and casseroles from family and friends nearby. People have inconvenienced themselves for our sake, bringing good works and sage advice.
Measured on these days, the state of the world's soul is pretty darn good.
And so, the ones who let you down with willful silence, the ones who quickly shift the focus from sympathy to self-centeredness ("I'm sorry for your loss. Now, let me talk about what's important to me."), those folks can take over one's thoughts if we're not careful.
And so, a way through it is two-fold: be grateful for the gifts we've received and act on that gratitude.
Acting on that gratitude, for me, requires that I remember thank each person for each gift and, more importantly, pay better attention when great events come to family and friends. That's easy to remember now, when the feelings of gratitude are strong, but not so much later, when life gets full and what's important to me takes center stage. As has often been said, "I may not be much, but I'm all I think about."