“Whatcha doin’, Daddy?” my daughter, Elyse, inquired of me. “I’m writing down my New Year’s Revolutions,” I replied. When she finally stopped laughing, I asked her, “Why are you laughing?”
“Dad!” she said, “The word is resolutions, not revolutions.” She was a college freshman at the time. I’m convinced that one of the core classes every college freshman takes is titled “Now you know EVERYTHING!” One of my revolutions is to be a mentor to my daughters, so I decided to start immediately by getting the dictionary out and helping her understand my perspective. Interestingly, she didn’t know what that book was. I explained that it’s a printed copy of dictionary.com. AH! Then, she understood exactly.
“How does Webster define revolution?” I asked her. With great excitement, in anticipation of proving the old man wrong (you see, that’s an objective of the core class I mentioned earlier), she looked up the word and declared that it meant “an assertedly momentous change in any situation.”
“See, Baby,” I said, “that’s exactly what I want to do, change certain situations in my life. And if they’re momentous changes, that, to me, means that I’ll be a much better person for it. Revolutions!” “Oh,” she responded, “like you want to lose twenty pounds this year? That would be momentous!” “Yes, but I’m not sure I’m willing to work that hard, I’m going to think big, but start small.” “So what are your revolutions for this year then, Dad?”
“Well, Elyse, I’m convinced that it’s the little things we do that matter most. Although I do this a little bit, I’m going to resolve, your word, to do it more often and more regularly. That is, I’m going to say “Good morning!” to everyone I see every morning. And it will start with you, your mom, your sister and your niece.” “Like you say, Dad, you already do that. How is that momentous?” “I suppose the momentous part will be when I don’t FEEL like saying it. Or, better yet, when I see people I don’t know.” “You know you might scare them when you do that, don’t you?” “Yeah, but maybe it’ll scare them into a good mood, ya think?” “Okay, I’ll buy that. What else will you do that’s revolutionary?”
“How about I exercise regularly?” “That’ll take a lot of time and work, won’t it?” “Well, first, I’ll MAKE time. I’ll get up real early every morning so that I don’t take time away from being with y’all. And I won’t try to kill myself. I really don’t need to compete with The Rock any more. I’ll find an exercise that I can do inside so that I don’t have to worry about weather. We have that old bike-that-goes-nowhere-fast downstairs. I’ll ride that every day for a half hour. I can even watch videos while I do that. MAYBE I’ll even watch educational videos. Can you recommend any?”
“Well, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off taught me a lot. But I don’t think that’s what you mean, huh?” “You’re so smart now that you’re in college, Baby!” “You know, you could read while you’re riding that bike too, Dad!” “Yep. I could do that, but I think I’d rather do that before I go to bed every night.” “What else, Dad? This is starting to get interesting.”
“Well, I want to do something momentous, but something I can stick with all year long. I’m going to try my best to be honest.” “That may be hard, Dad.” “Yes, but if I can do that it will be momentous, won’t it? One of the topics I talk about a lot in my classes is ‘integrity.’ You’ve studied that word at school, haven’t you?” “Yeah, it’s one of our school’s core values. We talk about it a lot. How do you define it in your classes?” “To me, it means being honest with myself as well as with others and doing the right things even when it’s not popular or, especially, when someone else isn’t watching.” “What about when EVERYONE is watching, Dad?” “I hadn’t thought of that one, Elyse. You’re scaring me!” “I guess that’s enough to keep you busy all year long, isn’t it?”
“I’m also going to try to be a servant.” “Oh-oh, Dad, you’re really gonna get in trouble now!” “I probably will, Elyse, but another principle I teach about is humility. Humility requires us to think and act like a servant. I’m going to try to practice what I preach this year, Baby. I’ll serve others as best I can.”
“Dad, while you were talking, I looked up the word resolution. It’s a course of action decided upon. Are you saying you’re going to resolve to live up to your revolutions?” “Okay, Elyse, you win! You’re right. I resolve to live up to my revolutions this year. Will you help me?” “Of course, Dad, I’ll coach you! Good luck on your New Year Revolutions, Daddy.” “Thanks, Baby, I might need it. When you’re about to do something momentous it helps to have support, I’ll consider you my accountability partner. Now, let’s go get bulked up for this event and have some ice cream.”
Until next time, Be GREAT! You ARE!
bob vásquez!
No comments:
Post a Comment