I don't pretend to have the answers to
everything. If I did, I suppose my life would be a lot easier. Still,
I think a few important things have been lost through the
generations. Mainly what's been lost, I fear, is the ability to deal
with the ups and downs that life throws at us.
People today seem to think the world
owes them respect, decency and kindness. And that there are certain
rights everyone is born with. I suppose that last bit is due to the
wishful thinking of our founding fathers. But it's not real, you
guys. Nothing society tells us is real.
In actuality, nature is not fair. Life
is not fair. And those who expect it to be are destined to have a
hell of a time dealing with it the way it really is. They don't have
the tools for that. It's not their fault. They were simply never
taught the realities of life.
Life is a lot of struggle mixed with a
little happiness to soften the blow. It has to be that way, you know.
Those struggles strengthen us. They keep us humble. But most of all,
they provide the contrast we need in order to appreciate the good
times.
Now, I was raised in the country and I
do mean in the country. I am not from a small town. We lived across
from a dairy farm in the middle of nowhere. There were a lot of us
and we were not monetarily wealthy.
We had pea soup and corn bread for
dinner a lot. It was tasty and healthy and I still love
it. We had a garden. We worked for our food by shucking those peas, harvesting other veggies and helping around the house. My Mom put dinner on the table every night. It wasn't always
pea soup. It was always humble, nutritious and inexpensive. If
we didn't like it and didn't eat it, well, we'd be really, really
ready for breakfast next day.
Because there was no alternative.
We didn't order in or eat fast food. We
didn't eat out. We sat at the dinner table, talked about our day and
enjoyed each others company. After dinner, we played board games
until bed time, which was when the sun went down. If it was summer,
we played outside. We were never bored.
We worked hard but we also knew how to
have fun. Sometimes we would all pile into the car and go to the
beach. In winter, we grabbed our sleds or whatever else would slip
down the hill and made our own fun. We skated
on the neighbor's cow pond in the winter.
We invented our own brand of fun. I'm
told that one time, when the garden flooded, we plugged up an old
bathtub to use as a boat, therefore turning a tragedy into a good
time. I was pretty young, though. I don't really remember it.
I guess you could say that my childhood
was a series of events that were largely based on turning old, beat up straw
into shiny, new gold. Which is, I suppose, why I'm so resilient to
this day. Practice makes perfect, as they say. That is not to say
that I'm perfect. Nope, far from it.
But I do know this. If you shelter your
kids from everything, kissing all their boo-boos and catching them
every time they fall, well, they never have a chance to learn those
deep down, ingrained lessons that struggle and misfortune bring, do
they?
In other words, it's OK to let your
little darlings skin their knees and develop the resultant,
protective scabs on their own. In fact, it's more than OK, it's
necessary. Strength comes through adversity. And strength, my
friends, is vital to survival.
I'm at peace with life being unfair, In
fact, I'm glad it is. Because if it wasn't, I wouldn't be half the
person I am today. A lot of us wouldn't. So, when life knocks you
down, take your licks, patch your skinned knees and let those
lessons give you strength to carry on, a little wiser than you were
before. That's what life is all about.
Isn't it beautiful?
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