Sunday, March 25, 2018
"Amount to something . . ."
His small midwestern town of the 1950's offered little encouragement to 'be all you can be'. Then a family with a less provincial perspective moved into the area. Recognizing the young man's native intelligence and potential, the older man encouraged him to "amount to something" with his life. There was nothing in the admonition that belittled, that demeaned the ambient culture. Rather, it was encouragement and recognition that someone believed in him more than he possibly believed in himself.
En-courage has been defined as 'putting heart into someone'.
The older man was not trying to 'clone' the teen-ager nor attempting to have him be someone other than who his own potential could achieve. Consequently, the young man experienced a new 'Hope' for his future.
Thereafter his life fulfilled the promise inherent in a long ago song "I'm just an old chunk of Coal" by Billy Shaver: "I'm just an old chunk of coal but I'm gonna be a diamond some day. I'm gonna grow and glow till I'm so blue perfect ". Because of his professional and personal life, I know that countless lives were changed for the better.
I wonder how many others in this life need someone to 'believe in them' . . .
Satchel
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Great post, "Satchel." That en-couragement can be seminal in the development of a person, especially though not exclusively at a young age.
ReplyDeleteSometimes that is all it takes for a person to be able to see beyond the myopic eyes of their current reality. This I know because I have so often been the one "en-couraged". I only hope that I can and that I am paying it forward by living a life in which I notice those around me who need "someone to believe in them" and that, in turn, I act with encouragement.
ReplyDelete~RS