Reflections to My Beloved Grandchildren for the New Year 2021

Abstract

To My Beloved Grandchildren: This New Year poses particularly challenging and difficult times in the history of our beloved country. There are even more major challenges for the entire planet given the pandemic of COVID-19 and other major concerns, including global warming and pollution. I am like many other grandparents in the twilights of our lives, while our grandchildren are major beacons of light in their sunrises. For these and other cogent reasons, I want to share a few reflections to my beloved grandchildren for the New Year 2021.•In life, pursue your passions, not fortune or fame, and find the best mentors to guide you.•Try to be the best you can be regardless of how good or bad anyone else is.•Try to make the world a better place.•“Be a Pro (-fessional, I mean.) Recognize in what direction your innate talents lie, and pursue them vigorously; develop them, polish them, and then oneself”1Pitts RF. In: Samaritan 1967. Yearbook of Cornell University Medical College. New York: Cornell University Medical College; 1967.Google Scholar so try to be “smart as a whip” and not “dumb as a rock.”•In life, as in science, “many beautiful hypotheses are slain by ugly facts.”2Huxley TH. Collected Essays of Thomas Huxley: Discourses Biological and Geological Part Eight. Kessinger Publishing, New York1894Google Scholar•The pursuit of knowledge is not a destination but a state of mind, so try to pursue the facts even though the “plain and simple truth” may be neither plain nor simple.•“Denial is more than a river in Egypt,”3Florence takes prize for joke. Reading Times. April 11, 1931. Reading, Pa.Google Scholar or in other words, “Truth never damages a cause that is just.”4Gandhi MK. The Gospel of Truth. 1946.Google Scholar•Be shocked but never surprised.•“Keep eye on the ball,”5Khan H Squash Racquets: The Khan Game. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI1972Google Scholar which is your principles not your ambitions.•Know what you know but also try to know what you don't know.•Live your life with high hopes but low expectations, so shoot for the stars and settle for the sun.•Be careful what you wish for or, in other words practice ready, aim, fire, not ready, fire, aim.•Balance your already extraordinary competence with your already extraordinary compassion.•Try to act at all times with character, integrity, dignity, and grace. This will “gratify some and astonish the rest.”6Twain M Note to the Young People's Society. Greenpoint Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, NY1901Google Scholar•Try to listen first, learn second, and lead third.•Try to listen to and hear the opinions of others whose opinions you should try to respect while probably disagreeing with some people much of the time.•Give others the benefit of the doubt but don't ignore proof beyond a reasonable doubt.•Understand but do not confront or judge those who do not respect either the facts or the rights of others.•Do not brag about or apologize for your roots.•Family is what you make it not what you are born into.•Families share more than genes, and your life circumstances will include the influences of nature and nurture and luck, although always remember that “chance favors the prepared mind.”7Pasteur L. Dean's Address. Lille, France1854Google Scholar•Always treat your family members and their choices of partners with respect but, like every other garden variety human beings who put their pants on one leg at a time, they must earn your respect as individuals.•Your attitude will be a major determinant of your altitude.•Ethical principles are like rubber bands—if you stretch them far enough, they will break.8Dardano APAN Sr. 2020. Personal communication.Google Scholar•Try to follow the Golden Rule and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”9Spooner WA The Golden Rule.in: Hastings J Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Scribner, New York1914: 310-312Google Scholar even though sometimes “no good deed goes unpunished.”10Gill B. The Trouble of One House. Doubleday & Company, Garden City, NY1950Google Scholar•Last, but not least, just stay the course and become as young and middle-aged and older adults the same outstanding individuals you already are! I mention all these to you now because, after 78 glorious years on the planet, I have learned many valuable and a few painful lessons. These include:•There are many who have tenuous attachments to the truth.•Talking to some people is like talking to a turnip except that only the turnip listens.•The human spirit has a tendency over time to accept the unacceptable, so it is crucial to resist this very human tendency.•The world is bad enough as it is so I have no right to make it worse.•I cannot do all the things the world needs but right now the world still needs me to do all the good I can do. I love each of you so very much and am so pleased and proud to have each of you as grandchildren. XOXO, Your Beloved Grandpa