letter from Paul Harvey. Nice piece.

With all the bickering that has been going on here, I thought I should remind people what's really important to me and should be important to them. Any thoughts on this?

Paul Harvey Writes:

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better.

I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would.


I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.


I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.


And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.


It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.


I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.


I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room,but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him.


When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him/her.


I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.


If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.


I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.


When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy\girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Hannukah/Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you - tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.

Written with a pen (originally). Sealed with a kiss. I'm here for you. And if I die before you do, I'll go to heaven and wait for you.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by KorpDeath
With all the bickering that has been going on here, I thought I should remind people what's really important to me and should be important to them. Any thoughts on this?





I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

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Very profound....

Quote:

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And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

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er0k? :D

Wow, I have to say that is an amazingly written piece of work! I Personally am 20 years old, basically growing up during the 90's. I never got to do a lot of that stuff do to today's standards, but I sit and watch the old black and white shows (Leave it to beaver) and think about how life was then. Things have changed so much, instead of everyone being taught by experiece how life is , you are told how everything should be. If you do wrong now, it's ok you had a troubled childhood, or your parents couldn't afford to get you the "in" things and you became an outcast, etc and it can be blammed on someone else. Families aren't families, no one sits down at a dinner table and talks about their day, heck you're lucky to see the "other" people who live in your house in these times.

That's a deep paper, well written! Like I said I can't really relate or say I "understand how it was", but I can say that you are making a lot of good points that are very logical. Cool man.

That's pretty sad AciDriveHB. Sitting down to dinner is one the most important things you can do with, and for, your family. It seems like a really simple thing, but believe me it makes all the difference in the world. I'd rather sit at the table with my kids than have them hunker down in front of the T.V., you know watching CNN and Fox?

And you are completely correct in your assessment of today's responsibility shifting. Parents today think society should raise their children, it's always someone else's fault if something goes wrong. I believe it takes a village to raise a kid, but the teaching of basic sensibilities and common courtesy lies squarely on the shoulders of the parents. Common sense is no longer common, common courtesy is non-existent, and wisdom is breathing it's last breath.

A pretty sad state of affairs if you ask me. It takes allot of work to raise kids but unfortunatley most people would rather use that as an excuse than do the hard things that need to be done.

Hee hee, I remember day's like that. Days where every kid ran around the neighborhood in one house, and out another, and if ya screwed up, the neighbor down the street would give ya a smack, and then when you got home, ya got one smack for screwin up, and another for making the neighbor smack ya!

and it was ok, because you knew and felt that you were loved.

I miss those days.

Thanks KorpDeath for posting that piece.

Yeah I totall agree with that. I mean families no longer stay together (mother and father devorced right after having children), everyone's on the go, always someone else to balme, it's a sad world. Personally I don't know how I grew up with morals at all always sitting in front of a TV.

I mean I woke up every morning for the first 9 years on my own of my schooling, got ready, and left an empty house to return to one. It's sad, people don't have that bond as they use to. And who knows where it came from?

Could we say it's the community we live in, affairs over seas, or could it be that technology has taken us warm blood human beings who had feelings, and turned us into robots? We wear phones pretty much on our faces anywhere we go, and are always too busy for this and that. Just like the movies portray these days of a dad who works all the time, and a mother that might to, leaving the raising up to the schools and TV. Dad's too busy to come to a baseball game, or mom is too busy to go to a swim meet. Always the notes left on the table saying there is food in the freezer for dinner, do your homework, and get to bed early I'm stuck at work late again tonight. Then always signing it "Love you", but does anyone today know what it means?

Sorry got a little off subject, but that just brings up so many matters wrong with today. techtech, I wish I could have lived in a time where I could run in and out of houses playing with friends. Now there are so many locks, passcodes, security ID's needed to go anywhere it's crazy. You are an enemy of the household unless you have the proper ID.

If nothing else, AciDriveHB, remember...just because it was perpetrated on you, doesn't mean you need to do it to your kids. Sometimes we overlook simple things like that in our rush to become "the best" or the "richest" or "the most powerful", blah blah blah.


You didn't get off the subject at all, you have shown your commendable resolve if you are principled person in spite of your upbringing. That says allot about you as a person.

Peace.

Thanks for a great letter-I read it with the dog curled at my feet and sometimes I forget what's important!!!

Oh believe me, everything that went wrong with me I plan to change. I mean I want to find a job where I can bring my baby with me to work and be able to program and do network admin and still have my baby next to me. Always plan on having dinner together, maybe not every night but a few. Help with homework, watch TV with them even, be there so they know I'm around and I can be a "normal" parent and not let them have everyone else around teach them to grow up.

I also want to say thank you for your kind words KorpDeath. I don't know if I'm all that better sometimes than my parents, but I know that I do make an effort to try not to let myself slip and just not care. Which personally is how I think we got to the delemma of today!

Just a side thought, which is kind of off the subject but I still think needs to be hear... Look up a Carlos Mencia who was a comedian for one of the Comedy Central Presents shows. It's really good, and he makes a lot of great points. It's comedy yes, but in a very education way that I think in today's age people need to see.

Those things make life worth living!

Family is for me the most important thing in live!

Going to my parents even if it is for only for 60 min. it still is for me (40 years old) one of the best things in my life!

I really can t understand when someone doesn t falue being with it s parents!

I enjoy every minute being with them (maybe because i know they will not be there anymore in about 10-15 years!)

Life is all about being there for your family and having fun and support each other!

Now having a son at the age of 5,what i ve learned from my parents i will teach him and of course some things i ve learned a long the way from others.

Oh how i enjoy being with him seeing him grow.

Sometimes it s not easy but i love taking care of him more than anything else in this world!