Tag Archives: leadership

For Collin and Finn

Saturday Afternoon Ramblings

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I’m starting a new category here on the blog.  It’s called “For Collin and Finn” and will be a place where I can share thoughts and ideas that I’d like to share with my boys but can’t because of circumstances.  Some of these posts will be public and some private, but they are here so that one day they can know me.  I have so many regrets about the last four years, regrets of time lost with them, of those special firsts that I didn’t get to share, of not having the financial resources to do more for them.  In a way, these posts are my effort to make up for all that we’ve lost and missed out on, and while nothing can ever give us back the time, my hope is that one day when they are old enough, they will read these entries and understand how badly I miss their presence, their laughter, and their energy.

Sons, the most important lesson I want to teach you, if you learn nothing else from me, is that there is no substitute for hard work.  Regardless of what path you choose in life — artist, musician, director, doctor, plumber, or carpenter — there are no shortcuts for success.  You will have to dedicate yourself to learning your craft, and you will have to spend countless hours practicing to hone your skills.  If you want to be great at what you do, and my hope is that you’ll strive for greatness, you cannot get around that simple fact.  Be prepared to study and struggle and fail and relearn and try again.

This world is a competitive place, and whatever path you choose, there are thousands out there who want to achieve success in that field.  If you want to stand out from the crowd, work harder than they do.  Set your will to achieving your aspirations and let nothing hold you back or slow you down.  You will learn that if you give your all and fight with everything inside you to reach those goals, even if you fail, you will feel pride in knowing you gave it your best.  I’ve learned this one firsthand because I’ve had more than my share of failures, but when I lay my head down at night, I know in my heart that those failures were not from lack of effort.  When life has you down, and it will knock you down at some point, having that sense of pride to hold onto is important.  It will give you the strength to get back on your feet and try again.

So please, guys, don’t go through your lives searching for shortcuts or hoping for windfalls.  Good luck and fast bucks are too far and too few between, as the Outlaw once sang, and if you wait for life to give you anything, you will find yourselves bitter and disappointed.  Work hard at whatever you do; commit yourself to pursuing excellence; and never quit.  I learned that from your grandfather and great-grandfather, and I hope you can learn it from me, too.

General Posts

Monday Morning Ramblings

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Celebration on the last day of class.

For all my grumbling about the bureaucracy and apathetic students plaguing education, I do love teaching, and this year’s group of Dual Enrollment students at Pigeon Forge High School was a joy to teach.  They made this semester bearable and pushed me to elevate my skills to match theirs.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been their teacher and hope they learned enough to help them through their academic careers.  To me, they represent everything that’s good about this country: hard-work, adaptability, loyalty, fellowship, compassion, and intelligence.  One day, most of these kids will be in leadership positions, and that gives me hope for our future.

A well-earned celebration.
One of the finest young men you'll ever meet.

 

General Posts

Wednesday Morning Ramblings

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I was about 12 or 13 when the following incident occurred.  I can’t remember the specifics of what we were doing, but I was helping my papaw with something, cutting wood or sorting through junk or something.  I do remember it was in his shed that was attached to the house, and he was unhappy with how sloppily I was doing the work and chastised me for the effort.  Being young and arrogant, believing myself much stronger and tougher than I actually was, I mouthed off back to him.  I can’t remember what I said, probably something like, “Do it yourself, then.”  But I do remember the response.

Papaw was about 6’4″ and at that point probably 260-270 pounds.  He was one of the strongest men I’ve ever known, even though he was well beyond his prime by the time I came along.  He had also served in the Korean War, where he had suffered a nearly fatal wound from a mortar shell.  He lived the majority of his life with shrapnel in his neck because it was too close to his spinal cord to risk removing it.  He was tougher than I can even dream of being.

Calmly, he set down whatever he had in his hands and walked to where I was working.  He leaned down to me, put his index finger in my face, and spoke clearly, “Son, if you ever talk to me like that again, I’ll knock your teeth down your throat.”  I stared at the thick finger, gnarled and scarred from a lifetime of hard labor, and then glanced into his eyes.  Suddenly, I didn’t feel so cocky.  In fact, I believed him more than I’ve believed anyone before or since.  It’s hard to explain what I saw in his eyes.  It wasn’t anger, more like disappointment that his oldest grandson could be so disrespectful.  There was also sternness, a glimmer that dared me to test him.  But more importantly, even in that moment, there was love.  Not the touchy-feely sunshine and rainbows love that nurtures tender emotions, but genuine love, tough love, that told me he would not allow his oldest grandson to be a punk.  He expected and demanded that I be someone worth knowing.

At some point, kids need this kind of tough love, this kind of sternness to teach them their place in society.  Somehow, somewhere along the way, we’ve lost that.  We’ve forgotten that discipline and respect for authority must be ingrained into a kid, especially a teenager, and especially a teenager like me.  I’m grateful for that moment when my grandfather put the fear of death in me because it’s part of what made me the man I am, and while I’m far from perfect, I am a fairly respectable, productive member of society.  Love sometimes has to be tough because this world and this life are difficult rides.