Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday September 15, 2008

I am off on another one of my "don't quit due to criticism" tangents and I want to share a quote or even a few that have helped me along the way, for I had to learn to live with criticism at a very early age. And even now, though I am younger than I will ever be again I must overcome criticism.

"When one becomes even such a minor public character as myself, one is beset on all sides by people who want to get at one for this, that, or the other thing. One must adopt a "high hat" air…or simply be nibbled away at like a piece of cheese by hundreds of hungry little mice."

A hint as to the author: She helped put the backbone in the Conservative movement. Nope, this grand verbiage is not from the Queen of the Alaskan Frontier, but she was a pioneer in many ways. This girl was the illegitimate child of a prostitute, called a "drenching beauty" by her peers and was lifted from poverty to a super writer of Broadway plays, editor of a prominent magazine and married one the of the most powerful men in America. She became a congresswoman and the first female ambassador to a major country.

Clare Booth Luce is the author of the today’s quote and she not only learned to keep on in spite of "hungry little mice," she used her saber like intellect to acerbically challenge the evils of her day. In 1923 she resigned from a powerful women's group and publicly stated her reason as:

"I don"t like older women who get a crush on girls."

No, I don't know how that would fly today. The statement did create quite a stir back then.

Politicians, preachers and other self righteous folks are always digging into someone's background, mining a few gems and then displaying the find to the widest possible audience with glee. Sensible people simply wonder at such because we know that while yesterday may have some important note in the life of a person, what really matters is what they and you have became and are becoming.

I admit the Bible uses a lot of ink warning against the critic, the scorner and the gossip. I concluded long ago that I would faithfully mention these things, but do so with no childish idea of obliterating them from the human experience. Rather, I choose to teach the other side of the scriptures and learn to personally become shielded by Christ, and to pass this knowledge onto others. If I/you have the choice of being the critic or the one criticized, then I and hopefully you must in wisdom choose to take the burning words, lies and even facts on the chin, and keep on trucking. "Keep on trucking" is a theological phrase from the South that means to continue along the correct path. To be upfront, on occasion I have been jolted by a critic and though I would rather clean Solomon's barns, admitted the critic was right and used this humiliating instance to correct the course. This experience is rare in that most cases critics are just that, critics who wonder why the Sun does not rise in the West. And our girl of the day, Clare Boothe Luce, surely knew that many of the men who criticized her were not worthy to carry her purse, though being in Washington many would have desired to so.

So, if an army of "hungry little mice" are nibbling away at you, just keep on trucking.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit.

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