How are you living?
"The wisest person I have ever met in my life, a third-grade dropout. Wisest and dropout in the same sentence is rather oxymoronic like jumbo-shrimp. Like fun-run, ain't nothing fun about it. Like Microsoft works. You all don't hear me. I used to say like country music but I've lived so long in Texas. I love country music now. I hunt. I fish. I have cowboy boots and cowboy. Y'all I am a blackneck redneck. Do you hear what I am saying to you? And he continued by saying...
No longer oxymoronic for me to say country music and it's not oxymoronic for me to say third grade and dropout. That third-grade dropout is the wisest person I ever met in my life who taught me to combine knowledge and wisdom to make an impact, was my father; a simple cook, wisest man I ever met in my life. Just a simple cook, left the school in the third grade to help out on the family farm but just because he left school doesn't mean his education stopped. Mark Twain once said “I've never allowed my schooling to get in the way of my education" My father taught himself how to read, taught himself how to write decided in the midst of Jim crowism as America was breathing the last gasp of the civil war my father decided he was going to stand and be a man, not a black man, not a brown man, not a white man but a man. He literally challenged himself to be the best that he could all the days of his life. I have four degrees. My brother is a judge we are not the smartest ones in our family. It's a third-grade dropout daddy. A third-grade dropout daddy was quoting Michelangelo, saying to us, "Boys, I won't have a problem if you aim high and miss but I am gonna have a real issue if you aim low and hit." A country mother quoting Henry Ford, saying," If you think you can or if you think you can't, you're right." I learned that from a third grade drop out.
Simple lessons, lessons like these:
"Son, you'd rather be an hour early than a minute late." We never knew what time it was at my house because the clocks were always ahead.
My mother said, for nearly thirty years my father left the house at 3:45 in the morning. One day, she asked him, "Why daddy?" He said, "Maybe one day, one of my boys will catch me in the act of excellence." I wanna share two things with you. Aristotle said, "you are what you repeatedly do." Therefore, excellence ought to be a habit, not an act. Don't ever forget that. I know you are tough but always remember to be kind always. Don't ever forget that. Never embarrass mama. Hmm mm. If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy if daddy ain't happy, don't nobody care but you know....
Lesson 2
Lesson from a cook over there in the galley "Son makes sure your servant's towel is bigger than your ego."Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. You all might have a relative in mind you want to send that to. Let me say it again "Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. Pride is the burden of a foolish person. John Wooden coached basketball at UCLA for a living and his callings was to impact people and with all those national championships, guess what he was found doing in the middle of the week? Going into the cupboard grabbing a broom and sweeping his own gym floor. You want to make an impact? Find your broom. Every day of your life, you find your broom. You grow your influence that way. That way, you are attracting people so that you can impact them
FINAL LESSON
"Son, if you are going to do a job, do it right." I've always been told how average I can be, always being criticized about being average but I want to tell you something. I stand here before you, before all of these people not listening to those words but telling myself every single day to shoot to the stars, to be the best I can be. Good enough isn't good enough if it can be better and better isn't good enough if it can be best.
I was really touched when he shared his personal experience about losing his wife more painful to me is the fact that he had to lose her to cancer.
Personal Lesson
Let me close with a very personal lesson that I think will bring all this into focus. Wisdom will come to you in the unlikelist of sources, a lot of times through failure. When you hit rock bottom, remember this. While you're struggling, rock bottom can also be a great foundation on which to build and on which to grow. I'm not worried that you would be successful. I'm worried that you won't fail from time to time. A person that gets up off the canvas that's the person that will continue to grow their influence. Back in the '70's to help me make this point, let me introduce you to someone. I met the finest woman I'd ever met in my life. Hmm mm. Back in my day, we'd have called her a brick house. This woman was the finest woman I'd ever seen in my life. There was just one little problem. Back then, ladies didn't like big old linemen. The blindside hadn't come out yet. They liked quarterbacks and running backs. We're at this dance and I found out her name is Trina Williams from Lompoc, California. We're all dancing and we're just excited. I decide in the middle of dancing with her that I would ask her for her phone number. Trina was the first…, Trina was the only woman in college who gave me her real telephone number. The next day, we walked to Baskin & Robbins Ice- cream parlor. My friends couldn't believe it. This has been 40 years ago and my friends still can't believe it. We go on a second date and a third date and a fourth date. Hmm mm. We drive from Chico to Vallejo so that she can meet my parents. My father meets her. My daddy. My hero. He meets her, pulls me to the side and says, "Is she psycho?" But anyway. We go together for a year, two years, three years. By now, Trina's a senior in college. I'm still a freshman but I am working some things out. I'm so glad I graduated in 4 terms; Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan. Now, it's time to propose so I talk to her girlfriends and it's California. It's in the 70's so it has to be outside, have to have a candle and you have to some chocolate. Listen, I'm from the hood. I have a bottle of Boone's farm wine. That's what I had. She said, "Yes." That was the key. I married the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen in my life. You all ever been to a wedding and even before the wedding starts you hear "How in the world?" And it was coming from my side of the family. We got married. We have a few children. Our life are great. One day, Trina finds a lump in her left breast. Breast cancer. Six years after that diagnosis, I and my two little boys walked up to mommy's casket. For two years my heart didn't beat. If it wasn't for my faith in God I wouldn't be standing here today. If it wasn't for those little boys there would have been no reason for which to go on. I was completely lost. That was rock bottom. You know what sustained me? The wisdom of a third grade drop out. The wisdom of a simple cook. We're at the casket I'd never seen my dad cry but this time, I saw my dad cry. That was his daughter, Trina was his daughter not his daughter-in-law. I am right behind my father about to see her for the last time on this earth and my father shared three words with me that changed my life right there at the casket. It would be the last lesson he would ever teach me. He said, "Son, just stand." You keep standing. No matter how rough the sea, you keep standing and I am not just talking about water. You keep standing. No matter what, you don't give up. And as clearly as I am talking to you today, these were some of her last words to me.
She looked me in the eyes and said, "It doesn't matter to me any longer how long I live, what matters to me most is how I live." I ask you all one question, a question I was asked all my life by a third grade dropout.
How you living? How you living?
Every day, ask yourself that question.
How you living?
Here's what a cook would suggest you to live, this way,
that you would not judge,
that you would show up early,
that you'd be kind,
that you make sure that that servant's towel is huge and used,
that if you are going to do something, you do it the right way.
That cook would tell you this, that it's never wrong to do the right thing, that how you do anything is how you do everything and in that way, you will grow your influence to make an impact. In that way you will honor those who have come before you, those who have invest in you. Look in those unlikeliest of places for wisdom.
Enhance your life everyday by seeking wisdom and asking yourself every night, "How am I living?"
May God richly bless you all was the word Dr Rick Rigsby used to close that speech. Like he asked on that podium, in his speech so also will I ask you too,
“How are you living?”
SOURCE: Dr Rick Rigsby
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