Another Life Lesson For Your Children (And For You)

I find it funny how a rut can begin and how quickly familiarity can breed contempt.  Even a person that spends time on the ever-changing Internet (like myself) is not immune from the boredom that everyday life can bring.  So, I have found myself considering that topic, and how I might teach my daughter how to avoid the tedium the everyday world can bring.  As is not particularly unusual, I caught myself learning something new as well.

Perhaps you might have perceived that I'm quite the reader.  Exercise for the brain is really what opening up a book and reading really is.  Not to say, all books are particularly enjoyable - they aren't.  Some are awful, at least by my estimation.

But not all are.  On occasion, a good book will remind you of something that you can use everyday; there's a lesson there that can make you a better person, parent, and teacher.  And today, I remembered this some lines from this poem " If" by Rudyard Kipling:

"If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools"

…and so on.

There's a lesson to be learned here, that I believe is similar to a quote that Joy Behar attributes to Rush Limbaugh in the worthwhile book Got What It Takes? Successful People Reveal How They Made It To The Topby Bill Boggs.  That is, be bold.  BE BOLD.  Mostly I can get behind that theory.  Very few people accomplish things of note without some measure of risk and hard work. 

For my daughter and myself, I will reinterpret that slightly. 

The real lesson is this: in whatever you decide to do, sure, be bold, but don't let that be an excuse to be stupid.

Yes, I think that's a good plan for us all.

What bold thing have you done today for your children or yourself?  Perhaps today, more than any day, is the perfect moment to try something radically different.