It's The Right Thing To Do

We are back to "It's not that complicated". This aspect of the argument takes a bit of history - please bear with me. My father was a gentle, silent man with a wonderful dry sense of humor. Everybody loved him. Part of his silence was due to a significant hearing loss from WW 2, but I just thought of him as quiet. He had several sayings that I heard repeatedly throughout my growing up. At the time, I assumed he was resorting to parent-speak or cliches. Now I realize that he had thought long and hard about some elements of life, especially how-to-treat-people, and he had worked his way to conclusions that were very right to him.

As a teenager, I would get very worked up and argue, cajole, pout, argue more, attack – all the brilliant maneuvers of a 16 year old. As I reached middle age, and then kept going, leaving middle age in the rearview mirror and heading directly to elderly, he began to make more and more sense to me.

Here is an example: I didn’t want to entertain my aunt’s new peculiar stepdaughter. She was shy and gawky and an embarrassment at a time when I was trying excessively hard to be a sophisticated, interesting young woman. I went on and on. I will not bore you as I bored my parents. He listened. I finished, believing my impassioned arguments had a chance… and then he told me I would befriend her. Full stop.

‘Why do I have to?’

‘Because it is the right thing to do.’ No morality lecture or disappointment.

Some decisions in life are not that complicated.

I’ll treat you to the other sayings at a later date, but this one is so perfect for the pseudo-complicated times we live in.

If you live in the Midwest, save the date May 3 - and come to Secret World Books where Linda will be interviewed about Not The Trip We Planned.