Dr. French O'Shields I like hot dogs and ordered one at a fast-food restaurant on the way to the beach. When asked how I wanted it, I replied, "All the way and with abundance."

That is how I got it, piled high. I had finished except for a couple of bites when I looked at my lap. Much of the trimmings I thought had gone inside my stomach had actually gone outside. Unknown to me, my paper napkin had slipped from my lap. Little piles of chili, slaw, mustard and ketchup made the front of my light blue corduroy shorts look like a speckled Easter egg.

Holding the napkin over my lap, I walked through the crowd to the men's room. I wet my handkerchief and scrubbed vigorously to get the stains out. Amazed and rejoicing at how well they had cleaned, I started toward the door. Hey, I couldn't do that — the whole front of my shorts were conspicuously wet. I couldn't walk in front of all those people. This looked even worse than the hot dog trimmings. At least then they knew what had happened, but now there would be doubt. What would I do? I surely couldn't stay here until they dried, my wife, waiting at the table, would have filed a missing person report. Suddenly I saw the hot air hand dryer on the wall. I took off my shorts and held them up to the nozzle of the hand dryer. In a matter of minutes they were dry.

A strange thing happened here. Normally I avoid becoming involved with things that produce hot air, whether it be a self-impressed speaker or a hot-air balloon. The one I detest the most is the hand dryer. Usually I walk back to my seat in a restaurant with dripping hands out of sheer protest. Now my opinion has changed; the hot air hand dryer is great, surely of divine design. An experience of necessity changed my mind.

I was smiling as I rejoined my wife at the table. My shorts were clean, but more than that, I had experienced the joy of having a negative opinion changed into a positive one.

Our feelings are variable, perhaps changing many times during one day. The opinions we form about people and things tend to be fixed. Changing an opinion does not come easy for most of us. Because of it we are impoverished. To refuse to change our minds places a limitation on our life experiences.

Driving on to the beach, I continued to think about what had happened. I remembered a man I had known in the early 1950s. He had a negative opinion of black people until one night his house caught on fire. Being elderly he didn't have the strength to get his invalid wife from the burning house. Two black men passing by in a truck saw the flames leaping from the roof, broke open the door and carried both the man and his wife to safety. His opinion was changed. He never forgot.

I could not help but wonder how many wonderful people I had denied myself knowing because I had earlier formulated a negative opinion of them; or the things I would have found useful, if earlier I had not decided they were useless.

From now on, I am going to try hard to form my opinions as sand sculptures rather than concrete statutes...for being able to change my opinion sure makes the living better.

Dr. French O'Shields is a Gaffney native and a retired Presbyterian minister.