Recently a friend challenged me to come up with my entire parental philosophy (and philosophy of life – as those seem interchangeable) in 30 characters or less. A quote from the late Nobel Prize winning ‘Jack of all Physics’, Richard Feynman, came to mind: “What do you care what other people think?” Mr. Feynman was not only a brilliant Rocket Scientist, but a raucous, rebellious and fun-loving character. He used that quote as the title of his second memoir in which he explains, among other things, how he flamboyantly demonstrated the failure of the O-rings from the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster in front of the presidential Rogers Commission using a simple glass of ice-water and pliers. He was a different kind of thinker and not afraid to show it. The way Mr. Feynman lived his life and reflected on it inspired me from a young age.
First of
all, if someone is up to NO good, they
should certainly be looking over their shoulder, worried about who may see, who
may judge, who may call them on the trouble-making. A pang of guilt will and should make a person
suspicious of what others are thinking.
That cloud of remorse around one’s head can make the world seem a darker
place.
However, if you are up to good in your life then you should
not be concerned about who is watching, whether observers approve or even if
they want to pick a beef with you.
Because you are doing good things in the world and the judgers can go
and gossip or stress-out about it all they want. Not your problem. At all.
I
believe that your only job is to live life with integrity. Consciously choose the path that will leave
you with a sense of pride in your heart at the end of the day. Making gobs of money to buy trivial things
will not soothe the soul or bring happiness. Fashion and trends may be impressive to some,
but have nothing to do with the good feelings that come from helping others,
conserving resources or generally making the world a pleasant place.
How do
we better ourselves and the world? Make
conscious choices. Spread smiles any way
you can. Talk to the retired couple
walking their dog – make friends. Slow
Speaking
as a self-admitted social dork with a reasonably good heart, I don’t worry
about the judgment of others. Because if
I did, I would be living in a constant state of geek paranoia. I love the quote from FDR presidential
advisor Bernard Baruch, “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter
don’t mind.” Although these words were originally referring to seating arrangements at the dinner table, it is oozing with
greater meaning in life. To me it means
that if someone will avoid me because I’m a harmless goofball, then they have
my blessing to take a wide berth!
Well,
this turned out to be a really long explanation of a phrase that was supposed
to stay under 30 characters. Mary - I
know I exceeded the limit, but I was able to keep it to 670 words!?
Even though my parental philosophy/philosophy of life stretched out to
be ridiculously verbose, it’s certainly not rocket science.
What
would you boil your philosophy down to?
(In 30-50 or so characters, please!)
P.S. This 30
character game apparently sprang from Mary’s son’s request for a meaningful
quote from his Mom to have inscribed on his graduation ring. Awesome.
I guess my kids should shop for a much larger piece of jewelry to commemorate their own graduation!
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