This I Believe
My multimedia techniques class is using an assignment from one of my colleagues. It’s a fun writing exercise called This I Believe. The This I Believe project has its history from the 1950s and was resurrected in 2004 as a project about ideas that guide people in their everyday lives.
So, here goes. My This I Believe story …
Family is what makes life go around. It has been the focus of my life and my spirit. What do we have without it? I am grateful for my family. My immediate family – my wife and two boys. I feel my devotion to family came from my parents and grandparents. I grew up with a stay-at-home mom and a dad that worked a lot. Dad owned a drugstore and put a lot of time in at the store and working on his business at home. He worked hard and he and my mom played hard with travel, dinners, taking care of my brothers and me and providing much of what we needed while growing up. They traveled and we traveled as a family, taking fun vacations from Maine to Florida with some overseas adventures I got because I am the youngest. They created what I feel was a sense of calm that has been difficult live up to.
We had Friday night dinners at our house or my grandparents home and the holidays were always spent together. Once my older brothers had children, my parents were the devoted grandparents, taking the kids every once in a while, while the new parents took some breaks.
I tell our boys that much of what their mom and I do for them is about family. The boys never knew my mom. She died in 1988 just shy of my 29th birthday. But I think they know my mom. No, I should say, I know they know my mom. She was the glue of our family. She made sure that she and my dad were there when my brothers had their kids. She drove the boat and my dad was the passenger. She made sure when we were growing up that dad was there when necessary. And when he could not be there, she was. Family is important. It was to mom and dad and it is to us. Our actions as parents and our stories of mom tell them what she was all about and how my family grew.
Our boys did know my dad until they were teens and they do know their step-grandmother. Dad continued his devotion to his sons and his grandchildren after mom died and he remarried. Our step-mom has helped in our family devotion too. It has been different than with my mom but it was still a devotion to family – now ours and hers.
Dad could sometimes not be as warm as Mom but he showed how he cared in other ways. He always paid at the restaurant and it was like wrestling an 800-pound gorilla for us to treat him to dinner or anything for that matter. Sometimes he would just give us stuff to show that he meant well.
My brothers and I had good teachers in my mom and dad. My parents had good teachers in my mom’s mom and dad too. They were incredibly generous and kind to my parents in many ways, both in time and caring for my brothers and me as kids whether it was taking us on trips or watching us while my parents went on their own trips.
My parents were my teachers about what family is and how meaningful family needs to be. Their parents were their teachers and now we are the teachers for our children. We are now the examples which our kids look up to.
Treat your children well. They are your family, your friends, your glue and your legacy to the future.
