Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Life (06/15/06)
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TITLE: For Jason | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jean Krohn
06/19/06 -
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I loved Grandpa Sam because he always had time to talk to me and tell me wonderful stories. He enjoyed recounting humorous tales about his campaigns for the Board of Supervisors in our small South Mississippi County. However, I always preferred his rambling recollections about vacations in faraway places, going to the opera in Italy, visiting the Louvre or meeting my personal hero, Winston Churchill.
Soon after my first child was born, my white-haired grandfather gathered his great-grandson in his arms and sat in his favorite rocking chair. As Jason made baby noises, they had what would be the first of many of their serious conversations. Grandpa’s face glowed with love as he cradled my son and crooned softly to him.
“Listen to me, great-grandson,” he whispered, “let me tell you something about life.”
Rocking gently back and forth in the warm sunlight of an April afternoon, grandpa spoke:
As a young man, I used to worry about what the ‘they’ in my life would think of me. In spite of this, after coming home from the university, I decided that instead of spending ten hours a day at a mahogany desk, which is what small-town lawyers do, I would plant a scuppernong arbor on the old home place. Instead of wearing three-piece power suits and black shiny shoes that hurt my big toe until it grew numb with pain, every morning I put on comfortable Levis and cowboy boots. Instead of dispensing cautious advice to fearful people seeking to escape the consequences of their own actions, I tended my farm. In the spring, I watched the calves being birthed and I harvested the crops in the fall.
And, do you know what? ‘They’ never even lifted an eyebrow!
Our family enjoyed sitting on the front porch in the cool of the afternoon. The old farmhouse had a long, shady veranda instead of gothic columns and an Olympic-size pool. Here we rested and talked about the events of our day rather than wasting time entertaining ‘important’ people with unimportant chatter.
And do you know, ‘they’ never even noticed!
Trying to impress people, you see, is a waste of time. Most of them are so interested in their own selves they don’t even realize all the things you strain to do to gain their approval.
Let me give you some advice that might help you avoid lots of the painful pitfalls of life. Never be afraid of ‘they’ as in, “What will ‘they’ think of me?” or as in “Will ‘they’ approve?” And never, never delay seeking your own personal fulfillment for fear of what ‘they’ think you should do.
You trust your own judgment; you set your own goals and live your own life. In fact, if you want to make your mark in this life, do so by your lack of desire to impress others. If you want to stimulate anyone, live your own life your own way and allow others the liberty to do the same. If you want to inspire anyone, love others as God loves them—unfettered by conditions. Perhaps if you love well enough, you may even gain the approval of He who is the only One worthy of impressing.
Above all, though, never allow yourself to become a ‘they’ in the life anyone else.
Jason, of course, slept through most of this discussion but I looked at grandpa, our eyes met and I nodded. We both knew what he meant.
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appropriate for a great-grandfather to pass on to a baby (or to a grown grand-child!)
A good lesson about "life" for us all. Good job, and keep writing!