life is a truth

  Now I wouldn't call myself a deeply religious person or one particularly familiar which the teachings of the Bible. Oh, I went to Sunday school alright, attended church with regularity for most of my childhood, even served as an altar boy, but far from a zealot. But the older I get the more I am learning the truths contained in those verses and stories in the Bible. 

 I was thinking about growing up and the things I was taught. But I 'm not thinking about the lessons learned in school, rather lessons learned in living. I was raised by parents, and by extension the community they associated themselves with, that believed in deeds. That is to say, the emphasis was not on what you knew, so much as what you did. A skilled tradesman was valued greater than a Phd professor. It was something I was aware of, although it was a subtle thing. My father insisted that I would graduate from high school! I was the first of his four children to do so. My eldest brother joined the Navy when he was seventeen. My other brother learned a trade. My sister went to cosmetology school. Later she did get her GED and a two year degree. But I was not allowed to quit! Thing is, I didn't want to quit. I found school, not that bad. I didn't have to work at it very hard to get passing grades. In retrospect I should have heeded the teachers advice and "buckled" down and "applied" myself. I did take the easy road.  

 When I was just a young guy in grade school I had an Uncle that gave me a nickname. He called me the professor because I wore glasses, was kinda skinny and small, and often talked about things that was supposed to be above my age. What we call age appropriate topics these days. In the 1950's a child did not offer an opinion on adult topics! Stay in your lane. Dad would sometimes call me forward to explain things to his friends. I remember that as clearly as anything. He would be sitting around having a few adult beverages, (beers) with his friends. Then I would be called to tell them how an internal combustion engine worked, what a four cycle and two cycle engine was. I suppose Dad was proud that I knew that stuff but it was embarrassing. All those men knew more about that stuff than I ever would in my life! It was like explaining religion to Jesus!

 But I'm wandering off here. I was thinking about the lesson of works versus knowledge. There are many passages in the Bible that speak to that. And there are contradictions in those verses as well. The Bible says do not practice your works before men so that they may see those works, that's a bad thing. Another verse tells us we will be known by our works. Still another passage warns us: do not forget to share what you have. And I was taught all of those and more. The lessons, not the actual verse. It didn't matter if I "knew" the chapter and verse, what was important was in the doing, not the knowing. That remains true. And in reading the Bible and the passages and lesson contained there, we have to keep all of that in context. 

 As a neighbor once said to my son, knowing it ain't doing it, doing it is doing it. That sentence sums things up fairly well. 

 That neighbor was from my parents generation. I expect he was raised much the same as they were. A retired Naval Commander, graduate of the Naval Academy and later a math teacher. Served in WW2 and probably the most skilled cabinet maker I ever knew. A man that worked with his hands, despite all that education. And it seemed like a contradiction at the time because that is what I had been told. There's a lot of educated damn fools in the world! I have to say, I've seen a lot of them! Lots of people with degrees, no jobs, no real skills, they just know stuff. They have read the books. Knowledge without works is useless. 

  What I have learned is this. It matters more what you do, than what you know. That is what my parents believed, what they tried to teach me, and it has become what I believe. I tried to pass that lesson on to my sons. They are the only ones that can say if I was successful or not. Life is a truth you have to learn for yourself, it isn't taught. We create our lives by the choices we make. Our emotions are great motivators, seldom good guides. You have to believe what you know. If you don't believe it, if you have doubts, you simply don't know. And this final adage I heard from an old farmer, "the more you know, the less you think you know."