Life Lessons My Parents Taught Me
Each one was loaded with wisdom, philosophy and some of that old-time religion
On a dysfunctional scale of 1-to-10, I’d put my volatile family at a 7. Sometimes we got close to 8 or 9. My mother and father were on again/off again my entire childhood, and there was plenty of yelling, shouting, and fighting.
But when it came to rearing me and my two older brothers, it was amazing that my parents, opposite in many ways, presented themselves most of the time as a united front.
They were both full of old-school theories and home-brewed philosophies. With a heap of the BBC — Black Baptist Church — mixed in. And in the decades since, those lessons they taught us turned out to be pretty much on target.
#1
My favorite Daddy-quote will always be CONDITIONS CREATE CONDUCT. I’ve spread it around like a gift to as many people as possible. When faced with a situation that calls for action, it’s wise to stop for a moment, take a few breaths, and get a read on the room. Determine if what you want to do is the appropriate thing to do. And how will it affect others?
Have you ever felt forced to be bigger or better than you wished to be?
