There is hardly a person who has not been hit with the desire to make a speech to a graduating class to share their infinite wisdom with the graduates. Since Sunday was the day we recognize our mothers, here is some of the wisdom I received from my mom that might be most useful -- including but not limited to the benefits and pitfalls of marriage, how to manage personal finances and how to deal with others. Plus some advice on petty thieves and whiners.
One of Mother’s pet peeves was watching a movie in which the hero saves the heroine and then they get married and live happily ever after.
On seeing one of these, Mother would declare loudly, “Baloney, when they get married is when the struggle just begins! It takes hard work to make a marriage work and these Hollywood movies are sending a false message.”
The message I took from this was that you don’t get married until you are good and ready and really want to.
The non-verbal message was that my parents made every effort to treat each other like royalty.
The second of my mother’s pet peeves went like this: "Most people spend their money without any thought or planning. They find their money is gone and they don’t even know where they spent it.”
I was treated to numerous lectures about the importance of saving your money and spending it wisely.
Time and time again, we heard the phrase, ”Its’ not how much you make that counts, It's how you handle what you make that determines how well you do financially.”
Another piece of advice I got from Mother was, ”Don’t become a petty thief. If you are going to steal, steal something really big. Everyone hates a petty thief.”
As a young boy I had to think about this because the real message was don’t steal at all.
One day I was lamenting the fact that my little friend Buzzy’s turtle had won the fourth of July turtle race and mine hadn’t even left the starting area.
Mother, never one to miss an opportunity for an object lesson, chimed in, “Well, maybe it is because Buzzy works harder than you and spends more time training his turtles.”
I always wondered how in the world Buzzy was actually training his turtles to race. However, Mother’s message came through clearly. Quit whining and find a way to do better.
My brother Hal and I learned at a young age not to complain about being bored or having nothing to do. If we made that mistake we could quickly end up with a mop, broom or shovel in our hands.
Or worse yet, we would get to hear her lecture about how you create your own entertainment and there was no excuse for not having anything to do or getting bored.
I wish Mother were here today to repeat that lecture to people who think we need more government programs to keep both the young and old busy.
Whenever I would complain about one of my acquaintances she would say,” Nobody’s perfect, learn to enjoy their good qualities and ignore the bad ones. You should learn to like everyone.”
Both parents believed strongly in education and expected my brother and I do well in school and go to college if we were capable of handling it.
However, they both agreed that you could spend too much time in school. It was with reluctance that they accepted the fact that I went to graduate school.
I think Mom’s advice, if followed, would help everyone graduating this month.