my grandfather
During my 10 mile run this morning, I was thinking a lot about my grandfather and some of the things he used to tell me. He died 12 years ago, and I don't care if it sounds crazy, but yeah, we still talk. He was a tiny man, barely 5'3" with a twinkle in his eye and a spring in his step.
He loved to read and I have several of his books here in my house including, Kundera's, The Art of the Novel, The Complete Works of Eudora Welty, The Writer's Handbook from 1988, The complete poems of Robert Service, and The Mier Expedition Diary, among many others. I still have a dog eared copy of Volume 1 of the American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States, The New World that he gave me many many years ago. He thought everyone should know their history.
He passed the CPA exam on the first try, and only years later did he get his college degree by taking a class at a time, mainly literature and writing courses. He loved it when I worked on the literature titles at Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
He was too short to serve in WWII and he had too many kids by then, so he became a master cartographer. My grandmother's cousin, Audie Murphy, brought enough WWII action to the family anyway, I guess.
Here's some of the things I remember my grandfather telling me:
On what you want to do with your life:
"You can do anything you want as long as you're willing to work for it. You have to sit down and do it though, dreams will get you thinking, hard work will get you there, just love what you do and bring honor to everything you put out in the world."
On travel:
"Go, go and see the world. You'll find it's bigger than you thought and smaller than you thought at the same time. Be friendly and respect everyone you meet."
on family:
"Make us proud and know we'll always love you no matter what, no matter what."
On love:
"Life is going to throw you some curves, if you're going to be with someone on those curves, they need to be sweet to you, if they can't be sweet to you, it's gonna make things a lot harder, so don't even start off with 'em."
That's what I was thinking about during my run.
He loved to read and I have several of his books here in my house including, Kundera's, The Art of the Novel, The Complete Works of Eudora Welty, The Writer's Handbook from 1988, The complete poems of Robert Service, and The Mier Expedition Diary, among many others. I still have a dog eared copy of Volume 1 of the American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States, The New World that he gave me many many years ago. He thought everyone should know their history.
He passed the CPA exam on the first try, and only years later did he get his college degree by taking a class at a time, mainly literature and writing courses. He loved it when I worked on the literature titles at Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
He was too short to serve in WWII and he had too many kids by then, so he became a master cartographer. My grandmother's cousin, Audie Murphy, brought enough WWII action to the family anyway, I guess.
Here's some of the things I remember my grandfather telling me:
On what you want to do with your life:
"You can do anything you want as long as you're willing to work for it. You have to sit down and do it though, dreams will get you thinking, hard work will get you there, just love what you do and bring honor to everything you put out in the world."
On travel:
"Go, go and see the world. You'll find it's bigger than you thought and smaller than you thought at the same time. Be friendly and respect everyone you meet."
on family:
"Make us proud and know we'll always love you no matter what, no matter what."
On love:
"Life is going to throw you some curves, if you're going to be with someone on those curves, they need to be sweet to you, if they can't be sweet to you, it's gonna make things a lot harder, so don't even start off with 'em."
That's what I was thinking about during my run.
1 Comments:
Audie Murphy is a relative of yours?! He was a character in a play I did a couple of years ago. I think the playwright, Paul Mullen, tries to work him into all of his plays. How funny is that!
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