LittleYO "Why" question is coming...

When I was younger I asked a lot of questions mainly because I knew there were reasons behind what I was seeing. Birds flying, waves crashing, a loud dishwasher and fire sirens...all of these things simply did not happen on their own. Something happen to make the birds fly, something happen to make the waves crash and fire engines roar. I took it upon myself at the age of three to take the dishwasher apart and figure it out for myself. I still don’t get it. My mom and dad were not happy and they gave me a watch to play with instead. Shortly after I started collecting watches and taking them apart to see how they worked. There are so many pieces all working together, perfectly. Each piece, small or big, is just as important to the end result, accurate time. It’s truly amazing how it all works…

Now a DaddyYO, I know these types of questions will be asked of me from my son and I look forward to them. Like my parents, I will reinforce free thinking, wonder, ideas and the endless possibilities of what he can achieve and accomplish in his lifetime. It’s what makes youth so exciting for him and everyone around him.

However, it is through my time and my experience in life that I’ve learned words like routine, conformity and 401K match. I think it’s a fair statement to say there are more followers than leaders. Corporations love followers and reinforce conformity and words like corporate culture. We get caught up in our day-to-day routine and we forget about our innate ability to be free thinkers. We spend the little time at night with our family and our children are a product of our 9-5 schedules. A cycle that is learned and reinforced all through life, starting at the early stages of our development.

Honestly, what happen to the Michelangelo’s, Locke, Berkeley, Sartre , Aristotle’s and Galileo’s of our time? WHERE DID THESE PEOPLE GO? My guess is extinction and I miss them. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity and we all demand it because it pays our bills. We all accept it because we have too.

How many times have you sat in a meeting and someone asked “does anyone have any questions?” and Crickets…nobody speaks up. People are afraid. It’s really sad. We need to reinforce our littleYO’s to be a free thinker’s and to not be afraid TO SPEAK UP! The future depends on it.

We all work and live under one sky. Each of us, despite our title and status, is just as important to the end result. Their is an answer and explanation to everything and I always hoped the answers came easier with age. I guess like a watch, life is sometimes more like fixing than admiring.

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;

This is to have succeeded.


Ralph Waldo Emerson