Wisdom of the Old

3bolt79

3bolt79

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Or rather, the older generations. My Grandfather ( my Mom;s Dad ) was a big part of my life growing up. By the time I had a kid of my own, I had a son. I named him after my Grandfather. My Grandpa only had a 6th grade education, but he was very wise in practical matters, and was a hard worker, and he had a full time Union job as a diesel mechanic and had a small ranch where he raised cattle.

One day, when I was about 8 years old, I asked him what “Marriage” was. He said, “That’s when you give up one half of your groceries to get the other half cooked.” He died 11 years ago. I really miss that man.
 
In my time teaching university physics I was surrounded by genius.

One of my colleague's was instrumental in the development of the scanning-tunneling electron microscope, which earned her principles the Nobel in Physics...
Another, a fellow who trained under Albert Einstein, I thought was probably the smartest human I had or would ever meet...

And the wisest amongst all this brain power was Frank. A fellow without a degree, spent more time pushing a broom around the fabrication shop in the basement of one of the science buildings...when he wasn't coaching us moronic students in the finer elements of machining the parts of whatever apparatus we felt we needed in our quest to rule the world...

A world that Frank knew more about than all of the collection of genius upstairs combined. In a practical sense, he was without equal. And above it all was his respect toward all living things...and it was the respect that became his legacy.

I spent hours on a stool in his shop just listening, and in the process learning about life and kindness and integrity.

The university presented him with an honorary Doctorate the day he retired. They collected his kids and siblings from all over the country for the ceremony. He'd never worn a cap and gown before and wasn't sure why it was necessary for his retirement party.

When he was hooded there wasn't a dry eye in the auditorium.

I'd not seen him in ten years and I was so grateful for the invitation. It was truly nice to call him Doctor.
 
My Grandfather was really crafty. I had some of the tools he made for working on big rigs. He fabricated and welded them himself. My son has them now. Some of them I wasn’t even sure what they were for. My son has used some of them working his new job as a mechanic.
 
Wisdom comes as much from experience and observation as it does from the finest schools in the world. Nice to know that an institution of higher learning recognized how much validity that has.
 
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