Our grandson, Collin, worked here at the Herald this summer and has now returned to college. While here, he wrote columns which appeared in the space on this page which I again occupy. He and I discussed his topics in advance, but after that, he crafted his own ideas on the subjects. I did not tell him what to write nor override his point of view.
My objectives were to enable you, as the reader, to see how a young person sees our current challenges, and to mentor him through the process. To all of you who are parents and grandparents, I don’t need to tell you what a rare pleasure it was for me to be able to spend this time with him at this juncture in his life. To have had the opportunity to share my life experiences with him as he is embarking upon his career was an inexpressible joy.
We frequently did not view things in the same ways, but even the differences brought us pleasure. It stretched me to explain to him in terms which he could identify with, why I think as I do on a given topic. If I could bring him around to agree with me, well good. If I could not achieve it, it stretched him to explain his thought process and why he came to a different conclusion. The process worked both ways.
It was also a great joy to be out with him in the community and to experience the outpouring of encouragement which kind, thoughtful people lavished upon him. That encouragement was so vital to him in building self-confidence, which is a challenge for him.
The summer also gave me an opportunity to work with him on his organizational skills, and to pass on to him a number of the practices which my father had passed on to me – simple stuff, like always carrying a pen and paper in his pocket, so he would never forget things he needed to do, and always write down when he told somebody he would do something, and to be darn sure he did it.
As I think back over the summer and try to put events and feelings in words, part of the experience of the summer was to see how Collin, and his twin sister, Isabella, who also spent the summer with us, are coping with the loss of their father some years ago. They will bear the scars from that tragedy throughout their lives. As my scars have taught me what I could not have learned any other way, I am trusting that they, too, will be stronger for having been forced to rise above life’s calamities.
Having the grandchildren at the dinner table in the evenings, hearing them relate their joys and struggles, and listening to their dreams has been a gift straight from Heaven to me and my wife, Patricia. It has been one of life’s rare highlights.
