GOOD EXAMPLE HARD TO FIND, HARD TO KEEP

“Be a good example.”

Who’s heard this before?

It starts early. If you have a younger brother or younger sister you’ve heard it before them.

You’re it.

As you collect birthdays you come to realize that being a good example is a life long job.

If you ever played sports on a team, you’ve been an example to someone.

Even if you were the worst player on the team, some kid not on the team looked up to you.

If you got good grades in school, you’ve been an example to someone.

The problem starts when people deny being a role model when they know that’s who they are.

They deny being good examples, balk at being called role models, good or bad.

Think of your role models and examples, you’ve got them no matter how old or young.

Don’t kid yourself thinking you’ve outgrown people to look up to, even if you fancy yourself worthy of worship.

‘I’m my own man, my own woman. I’m an Independent actor influenced by none, influencing no one.’

No, you’re not, but it’s a believable front.

‘I am a rock, I am an island.’

Or maybe you’re a jerk. Which isn’t always a bad thing.

The Good Example Of Bad Behavior

When my kids were at a more impressionable age I took them to a court hearing in downtown Portland.

We sat in the courtroom with a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit sit in chains inside a glass box on one side with a judge in black on the right.

We sat quietly and listened. Afterward I asked the kid who he thought had the mean eyes.

He said the judge, and he was right. The prisoner had some wild-eye thing going on, the judge looked pissed to have a crazy looking killer in his room.

I was glad my kid could tell the difference between the two

In this case I was trying to be a good example of a father who didn’t want his kids to ever be in that room in those conditions.

I used a law and order environment remembering how my dad used the same with his sons.

He knew the local police chief and arranged a tour of the jail. My granddad in Dallas Texas was married to a county jail matron and arranged a tour of her jail.

We got mug shots and walked the same walk Oswald took when he met Jack Ruby.

By the time I was twelve I knew I’d never be on the wrong side of the law.

Seeing the legal system work from judges to the accused and every stop in between painted a huge picture.

Seeing the town jail with local names on the walls made it personal.

What good examples do you carry forward?