Monday, March 7, 2011

The World is bigger...

than whatever town or city that you might live in.  We live in Springfield, just under 50,000 people, next to and almost attached to Eugene, just over 125,000 but I wanted my daughters to see far beyond this view and to realize the world is a very big place, full of different people, full of different lifestyles, experiences, attitudes, cultures, different hopes and different dreams and different places called "home."
     Much of life is spent conquering a fear that is not even real, and success is more a measure of attitude than skill. I remember when my daughters were very young and doing their homework at the kitchen table. They were working on simple multiplication, like 25 X 12 = ?? and I had fun teaching them that 28523712 X
70938726615 = ?? was not a different problem, only more numbers.  Never be afraid of something that you have not seen before.  This concept extends beyond math.
   Reading is perhaps the easiest way to explore the world and from an early age both my daughters were voracious readers, devouring books, one upon the other, to reach I knew not where?  They both had friends
that failed, got involved with drugs, got pregnant or both.  Somehow fell off the edge.  They learned some art of observation without participation.  They learned the direction of a path and by skill and luck, avoided the unseemly dark side of life.  I don't discount "luck" at all.  Sometimes all the perfection in the world will for some unaccountable reason just turn dark.  My daughters did realize though that they could dig themselves out.  They had skills, abilities and attitudes to alter courses trod upon, to change paths, to go where they wanted to go.
     Some of life is clearly black and white.  There are consequences to bad behavior and all choices eventually boil down to two:  this or that?  With every decision you never know where the other road would have taken you.  I did not grow up in a household where our way was the only way and neither did my daughters.  There is something confining and limiting in the belief when we think that we have gotten life "right" and other people haven't.  When we are the "best" and others aren't.  When our religion or politics is the only way.  It is a bit frightening if we believe everyone should be like us.
     This gives you a reason and license to explore!  Both my daughters became World Travellers, teaching abroad and the Peace Corps, students studying in foreign countries, sometimes just for adventure and always to raise their horizons.
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5 comments:

Rama Ananth said...

Such a beautiful account of life itself, with just a few words. Yes Life is a big place and everyday we can learn many things, just as I learnt a few things through blog today.

Jerry Carlin said...

Thank you, Rama. me too, me too!
I learn something every day.

Anonymous said...
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Jerry Carlin said...

Pamo, I suspect you are getting out of it just fine, little steps toward the horizon, all without fear, is perfect, and you have learned other things along the way.

Autumn Leaves said...

Bravo, Jer. You did an awesome job with your wife with your girls.