Night before last, I was trying to finish an English essay (which was due the next day) and my #2 comes to my desk, sits down and starts chatting away about life and love and girls and sports and school and and and... It never occurred to me to tell him - "hey kid, I love you, but I have a paper due tomorrow and it's not done yet..."
I listened. I talked back. I interacted. But mostly, I loved. In our conversations, we were discussing the drama that is facebook... and it is... you all know it. Facebook is what it is... is a place to be ACKNOWLEDGED by others and to ACKNOWLEDGE others. It is the way that we tell each other that we matter or we don't. Some people have 50 friends some people have 1000's (which it doesn't matter people can count on ONE hand how many "friends" they can count on their lifetimes - and that is just a plain fact).
Back to the matter at hand... the drama. We were discussing one in particular silly piece of drama going on in the teenage world that is our hometown... and I explained that I sent a note to one of the girls involved explaining that she needed to pull herself above it - read 1 Timothy 4:12... and I read it to him and he said this....
"Mom, you don't have to tell me what you wrote her. You have a way of inspiring people with your words. You could write the speeches that football coaches use before a game in the locker room - your words are THAT good..."...."You always know what to say to me when things get me down."
Now you go on ahead and laugh, but when your 16 year old tells you something like that when you thought they weren't paying attention to all the little notes you leave them around the house - your kids are listening, and in spite of their best efforts to NOT take it in... they are. I just say the things that I needed to hear as a kid and most of the time those things were never said. If I could go back and shake the sense in to myself - I would.
The same evening and the next day my #1 son wanted to chat with me... again, the paper waited... we spoke for almost an hour that day the paper was due about his life, love, girls, school, etc. Such big changes are coming in his life... he explained an argument that he had with a friend about what it means to be a hero... their difference in the argument was that my kid said, "You don't have to kill someone to be a hero... Heroes save more lives than they take"... yep, I had to agree with him.
For me, a hero is the person that donates a kidney so someone else can live. A hero is the guy that runs in to a burning tower knowing he won't come out. To me a hero is the teacher - that in spite of your piss poor attitude - won't give up on you (thank you Mr. Holder). It's the Mom that quits her job to be there to help you pass Algebra. It's the 5-year-old kid that stops and picks up the other 5-year-old kid that fell and then helps her pick up all her crayons.
Heroes are simple creatures - they give without expecting a thing in return. Then when you say "thank you", they will say something like, "Oh no - I was just doing my job, just wanted to help, just thought you could use it, etc., etc., etc." but they are always humble.
Looking back in my life, I had some great inspirations for things. My grandfather, Leo Watkins, inspired me to be close to God (and a good smack on the back of the head during church or the "stink eye" would keep me in line in his presence). Mr. Kent Holder and Mr. Bobby West (band and choir teachers respectively) inspired me to NEVER stop loving music. My Mom inspired me to find work closer to home (even if it meant taking a cut in pay) because you can never get the time back you loose with your kids - you can ALWAYS make more money down the road. My Dad inspired me to love a man that is dependable and works hard. My children have inspired me to be the best mother I can be. My friend, Christine went back to school and so inspired me to do the same. I have single Mom inspirations, good friend inspirations, laughter inspirations, life-is-too-short inspirations... in all that is my life; I never thought I was an inspiration.
I am glad that it was them though. I am glad that my children were the ones that found me inspiring. Because in the end, they are your ONLY real legacy in how you lived your life.
