dEhiN’s Blog

Why do some people cry over spilled milk? I mean that in the figurative sense, but it is very frustrating! Instead of responding with the recognition that it is a trivial thing, and that the milk can be replaced, these people insist on putting the milk above – as in more important than – the person who spilled the milk. WHY?!?!

I suppose one possibility is a sense of insecurity within that person who is doing the crying. This would be akin to one of the reasons why some people horde: growing up they developed a sense of insecurity and fear of going without, so they horde as a security blanket. Coming back to the spilled milk people, what is just as frustrating is trying to tell the person who is crying that it’s not a big deal. I usually receive responses of justification as to why it’s not bad that they are crying over spilled milk. The frustrating part is trying to make them see that I’m not berating them for caring about spilled milk. Whether the spilling was accidental or not, you still have X amount of money ‘down the drain’. But that doesn’t justify putting spilled milk at a higher priority level than a human being. It doesn’t justify indirectly giving the spiller a message that they shouldn’t, even accidentally, spill milk.

This also doesn’t make sense as a Christian, and especially when all the parties involved are Christians. God has promised to be our security, to take care of us. The famous Psalm 23, which both Christians and non-Christians know, speaks of that very promise. Yet, if the Lord is our Shepherd, then why are afraid of ‘wasting’ inconsequential things? Don’t get me wrong – for those whom that cup of milk was their last cup, the milk wasn’t so inconsequential an item. Yet, even in that case, I think that people should have more worth on each of our internal lists of what we hold dear than milk (or any other material object for that matter).

DH