Teach Your Children Well...

Just some thoughts I had today on what I hope my children and grandchildren have learned from me. It's always best if they learn things by watching you, but I hope when I have failed in that area that they have at least been told enough to have it stick. I know some of these things they learned from my parents and from people they met along the way in life.

Sword of Orion

1. We are not each the center of the universe. Not even of our universe. While it is great to feel good about yourself and your value, don't let that make you self-centered.




2. What is inside is more important than what is outside. You can't always judge a book by its cover.


3. We should help others less fortunate than ourselves. "If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."  ~Mother Teresa


4. It is better to err on the side of compassion that to be right in our assumption that people don't deserve our compassion. "When death, the great Reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity." George Eliot


5. If you give a homeless person $5 and he buys beer instead of food, that is not your concern. Maybe on that day he needs a beer more than he needs a burger. In any case, you have done your part to give charity. It then rests on that person. Charity should not come with strings attached. Just do it and wish them well.


6. What goes around, comes around. My dad stopped and changed so many flat tires for stranded people, and that has made it's way around to come back to someone helping me.


7. "In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy." ~Karl Reiland

Rickie is not afraid to laugh at himself.

8. Laugh a lot, and mostly at yourself.  


9. In some way, stay close to the earth. Look closely at butterflies and trees.  In you have any room, plant a garden and work in it yourself. If you don't have room, make trips to the country. Sit on a riverbank. Lay on your back and look at the tree above your head. Know that you are part of the whole of nature. And not necessarily the most important part. 


10. Work with your hands in some way. Be proud of those chipped fingernails and dirty hands. Don't have someone else do all your dirty work for you even if you can afford it. 


11. Others may have different opinions that yourself. Try to understand why they would feel that way. The things that shaped their life may not be the same things that shaped yours. I have one governing thought on whether to accept other opinions or not. It is whether that opinion is produced by hate and whether it concludes that one race, gender, class, sex, religion, or person is more important and "better" than another one simply based on the race, gender, class, sex, or religion. These type of opinions I don't accept.


12. There are many different ways to live life. If a culture is different than what you are used to that fact alone doesn't make it wrong and you right. 


13. Treat others as you would like to be treated. If you will do this one thing, then the other things will automatically occur. 


14. Enjoy life. While there is much to be depressed about, offset every downer with an upper or you will be a miserable person to yourself and others. There is both good and bad in the universe, and I like to think that good will prevail, the ring will be delivered by the Hobbit, and a gardener will save the world when the Hobbit loses his way.

Our garden last Spring