My 16 year old is working hard on his ditch. I am well pleased. At today's end it was 20 feet long. The walls are square and the width and depth consistent. It is 5 feet deep and 4.5 feet wide.
Like fighting a man - or a woman in the armies of today -hand to hand to stay alive, a lot of folks in America have never dug a ditch. I can leave him to his work alone, now, since he knows more about what he is doing. I sit in a lawn chair for a spell, as he takes one of his three his breaks, and we talk about building a life. We talk about pitfalls and holes folks find themselves in. There is no one who will help you get out of a hole if you keep getting into the same one you've dug for yourself.
Hell, people don't look at people much at all if they don't already know them from somewhere. "Don't make eye contact". Live in fear. Don't trust anyone.
I equate the lessons my son is learning, as he learns how to dig a ditch the right way, with life. Folks who have never dug a ditch figure what's the big deal, I think. Grab a shovel and dig. There is a wrong way to dig one, though. Have you ever heard of people buried alive in the ditches they were digging? It happens.
There is a right way to use the pick axe. There is a right way to use a shovel so the handle won't get broken. There is a right way to throw the dirt. He has to follow the tree line so the ditch is curved. That can make it weak and it is harder to keep the width and depth consistent as well as keeping the walls vertically plumb.
On the 11th. day he will begin to replace the dirt and rocks he has dug out of his ditch. He will reseed my yard. He will plant a tree and tend to it as it grows. Things can get better if you have a firm foundation to build on.
From time to time, as we grow, we find ourselves in a hole. I was always grateful once I pulled myself out of the holes I've found myself in. As I got out of them I figured out how I got in them and never wound up in the same hole twice. I filled them in and used the knowledge gained as a firmer foundation to build a good life on.
This is a good learning lesson for my boy. He came late in life but some things, for me, never change.
If you don't work you don't eat.
You need either a strong back or a strong mind to get and keep a job. Having both is a plus.
Applying yourself, with your best efforts, to your work will make you feel good about your life when you die.
You can try avoid getting in a hole, but when you fall into one work to get out and, allow the lesson to sink in.
What you do with the knowledge from your experiences makes you who you wind up being...good, bad or indifferent.
