November 6, 2006
What do Apples have to do with values?
Vol. 1 Issue 1
Nov. 7,2006
For most of us who are “Baby Boomers"
growing up was sometimes a struggle. Not
that we struggled our parents did. We were
too young to know any better. For the most
part
we were sheltered from the financial burdens
our parents
faced. For most of us, family life was
living from hand to
mouth. However, we did not know it. I
believed everyone had
pancakes or omelets twice a week for dinner.
Hamburger and
Tuna Helper weren’t invented yet. We
survived and what we
learned about life and moral principles we
passed on to our
children and hopefully from them to theirs.
We learned the value of a good education,
having a good work
ethic, treating your elders with respect and
admiration and
how to be charitable. My wife and I tried
our best to
pass these lessons on to our children. One
of the most
important lessons I learned from my father
was to accept my
shortcomings and failures. I learned not to
dwell on them,
but rather turn them into something
positive. My dad taught
me how to turn lemons into lemonade by
saying, “Son treat
life as a barrel of apples. Reach in a take
one if it comes
up rotten don’t throw it away plant its
seeds and grow another
tree.” He also taught me, when I fill up
that barrel only
take what you need save some for the less
fortunate. He
taught me to be charitable.
In raising, my two daughters, I tried to
impart my dad’s
lesson to them. I did it through example not
just words.
They watched as I struggled to start a new
business and
worked 10 -12 hours a day. They knew what it
was like to
wear each other’s hand-me-downs (Thank God,
I had two girls)
and how to appreciate it when they got
something new.
My wife and I did not give in to their
requests for a larger
allowance until they learned to appreciate
it. They had to
work. Not to help support the family but to
learn a work ethic.
They found their own jobs. My
twelve-year-old daughter was
delivering newspapers while her
fifteen-year-old sister was
flipping burgers. They also knew that their
schoolwork had
to be completed before anything else. What
ever they earned,
we added to it. However, they had to learn
responsibility first.
After my business flourished they watched as
I gave away a
good portion of my profits to local
charities. They learned
character, which I passed down to them from
my father.
I don’t mean to sound like I am boasting, my
parents weren’t the
only ones to impart these lessons, many of
my friends learned the
same teachings from their parents. It was a
generational thing.
Those are the traditional lessons in life
that should be learned.
Unfortunately, most of today’s parents are
heard saying that
their children have time to learn these
things. Let them
grow up and be kids first. How by buying
them off with
expensive electronic toys and later on
expensive cars;
without them learning how to appreciate it.
Appreciation
and responsibility is not taught it is
learned by example.
Today, every child is given the opportunity
to participate in
organized sports. You will always make the
team, no matter
what your athletic abilities are. No one is
a loser
everyone wins. What lessons are we teaching
today’s kids?
How are they going to learn the shortcomings
and failures
that come along with the game of life? Are
we telling them
that no matter what they do they will always
be winners? We
do not expect our professional sports teams
to win every
game. Some one has to lose.
When I was eleven-years-old I tried out for
my local Little
League team I did not make the team because
my athletic
abilities where not up to their standards. I
learned to
accept it. Three years later, I took up
golf. I still play
today. (Don’t Ask)
Your children must learn that just because
their schools and
sports teams have done away with winners and
loser life has
not. In some schools, they have abolished
failing grades.
They will give you as many times as you want
to get the
right answer. This does not bear the
slightest resemblance
to anything in real life. What happens when
these
‘Temporarily Academic Deficient' (It is
becoming politically
incorrect to use the word failed) persons
lose their first job
in the working world? How many more
psychotic pills are the
pharmaceutical companies going to pump out
because we are
turning these winners into depressed losers
without learning
to take responsibility for themselves and
turn around their
failures? If I were a clinical psychologist
today, I would
franchise depression clinics.
Today’s kids are not learning to take
responsibility for
their actions. It has become the ‘Me
Generation.’ What are
you going to do for me. Me, me, and me. I am
sick of
hearing it. My first car was my dad’s 1950
Chevrolet. When
he gave it to me, it was 14 years old. That
was the proudest
moment of my nineteenth year. Its floorboard
was made of plywood
covered with an old piece of carpet. It
covered up the rust
holes that wore through the original metal.
(I wish I had it
today.) Today if it is not fresh out of the
showroom, equipped
with the latest electronic gimmicks your son
or daughter would
not be caught dead in one. All I cared about
was getting
from point A to B and that beat up ‘Chevy’
got me there.
There are some of the lessons of life that
must be learned to
succeed in the real world. Unfortunately,
most children are
being raised out of feelings of guilt.
Parents believe that
the indulgences they did not receive growing
up, because their
parents could not afford them must be given
to their children without
question. “I won’t deprive my child they way
my parent’s
deprived me.” Well guess what? You weren’t
being deprived,
you weren’t paying attention.
Let me tell you what I gave my daughters and
how it worked
out. I did not have the financial means to
indulge them the
way some parents do today. So I gave them
the only thing I
could afford. Values, responsibility, and a
the belief that
they could achieve anything they want in
life if they work
hard and believe in themselves. Today my
oldest daughter is
an extremely successful businesswoman. She
has three children
her oldest who is ten-years-old has her own
business. She assembles
costume jewelry and sells it in school. She
donates the proceeds
to charity. My dad’s teachings are working.
My youngest daughter
went into the medical profession as a Labor
and Delivery nurse
in a prestigious hospital.
My father is no longer with us. I want to
tell you what
happened with his lessons about life. Today
my family
runs the biggest Apple Orchard you could
want. I am certain
my grandchildren will inherit it. And,I
don't mean Money.
And that is my opinion.
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