Things I’ve learned #1
In my life, partially because I’m not too good at avoiding trouble, I’ve gotten myself into a wide variety of situations, and it’s a source of some surprise to me that I’ve survived them all, so far.
When I was taking my apprenticeship, some twenty five odd years ago, i worked with some, well, unusual people. In some fairly dangerous situations. Some could hack it, some not. Some dealt with the situation with alcohol, some smoking dope, one guy went to a hidey hole and shot up with heroin every morning. I saw him do this, a hundred times. God protects fools, too, because these people seemed to escape serious injury and trouble, while I watched hardworking, straight, sober men die, one close enough to blow his last breath in my face. Those experiences taught me of the fragility of life, especially for the decent.
A friend’s relative died a couple of weeks ago. Most of the world knows the man as a decent, honest soul, and they couldn’t be further from the truth. He had a lavish funeral, appropriate to a person of his means and station in life, and only very few knew that he was a cheat, a mean, horrible man with no soul and no regard for others or their lives. That lesson is this: things are not what they seem. Only the creator knows. The creator alone knows the plan.
Very true. I sometimes think that people would rather to live in dillusion than to acknowledge the truth. Regardless of who knows what though, in the end, all of the things done in the dark come to light.
Well said. I like mine straight up.
As a Master Mason I learned that one of lifes highest goals is to live respected and die regretted. Keeping honesty and modesty in all you dealings with the world has become ever increasingly difficult.
Still I prefer to be able to look myself in the eye every morning and like the person looking back. As Billy Joel once said “only the good die young”!