Everyday Lessons

I know it's been a while. I guess life sometimes gets in the way of our best intentions. I have had some amazing Grandma Rita experiences in the last week or so and I want to make sure that I write them down.

Last week, Jeron was playing at a friend's house and accidentally broke a lava lamp that the boy had just purchased with his own saved money. Although it was an accident, the little boy felt really sad and mad, and Jeron felt bad because he didn't mean to do it. The mom of the little boy was frustrated because it included red liquid on her carpet and wall. Sometimes, the mama bear comes out in me and I just want to protect my own. After all, it was an accident. Let's all just get over it. Then I remembered a lesson that I learned many times from Grandma Rita: "People are more important than things." I talked to Jeron about how the little boy must have felt and how he would feel if someone broke something of his...even if it was just an accident. I got to share with Jeron an experience that I had with Grandma Rita and the lesson I learned.

A long time ago, I was getting ready to go to college. I had a boyfriend, and he was getting ready to go to college, too. When he was going through his belongings, he found some model rockets and launchers. He didn't want them anymore, but he thought that Uncle Timmy and Uncle Robbie might like to have them. One day he brought them over to our little apartment on Timothy Way. He showed them to Tim and Rob and explained how they worked and what they would need to do to launch the rockets. At some point, someone misunderstood the explanation and hit the launch button. One of the rockets took off in our living room, flying to and fro, hitting everything in its path. It was loud and scary. Auntie Holly cried. Grandma had run into the room by the time the rocket had stopped and the dust had settled. The first words out of her mouth were, "Is everyone okay?" She didn't get mad. She didn't yell. She didn't ask what had happened. She was most concerned about whether everyone was all right. She took Holly in her arms and comforted her while the rest of us assessed the damage. My boyfriend apologized profusely. Grandma just said, "It's okay. As long as everyone is fine." The rocket put a hole in one of Grandma's paintings, burned the carpet and singed the couch. My boyfriend kept apologizing. "It's okay. Those are just things. You kids are way more important than any of those things. I'm glad that the rocket didn't hit one of you!" And that was the end of it. We straightened the painting, cut the burn out of the carpet and threw a pillow over the singe in the couch. She never said another word about any of it. She taught through her words and her actions that people really are more important than things.

Jeron and I decided that he and his friend are way more important that the lava lamp that was broken. We made a deal to split the cost of a new one and we took it over to make a little boy very happy.

I consider what might have happened if we'd just taken a "Get over it" attitude: the little boy would still be sad and mad, the mom would still be frustrated and we might have lost some really good friends. Making the boy happy and the mom less frustrated and keeping our good friends was definitely worth the price we paid for a new lava lamp! Thanks, Grandma Rita, for teaching us that people are more important than things.