September 17, 2006
A Young Man Who Could Not Live With Guilt
Some people have no problem living with guilt. They go on living as if they had never done anything wrong. For others living with guilt is not that simple. Guilt nags at the mind and at the soul. One Logan, Utah man had that problem. As a child, he would steal candy in his backpack with his friends. Shawn Seamons and is friends would steal more candy than he and his friends could eat in one week. “I think we would just stash our backpacks full of candy, and just have an afternoon of sugar high and absolute fun,” says Seamons. Joanne Hansen, the owner of The Island Market where they stole their candy, never even knew that the kids were the candy thieves she had been battling. The guilt weighed on Seamon’s mind for six years until yesterday when he came into the store and wrote a $200 check for Hansen. He felt that he needed to pay her back for the years of candy that he and his friends had stolen. “They would’ve never known. I know,” says Seamons and that is why it makes a difference. Seamons could not bear to live with the guilt of knowing that he stolen candy from the store and paying Hansen back helped him to relieve some of that pressure.