Introduction To Your Future

As I contemplate wisdom I remember my Dad, who possessed a treasury of wisdom hidden somewhere in his head. His wisdom was not esoteric, it was common sense wisdom which is a rare commodity wherever you live. Let me explain.

When I was a junior in a small college in Oklahoma, my father was invited to speak to the student body. I remember the day as if it were yesterday. Nearly a thousand students were present. I was nervous, but most students were simply bored.

My father was introduced by the president of the college. There was no applause and no air of rapt expectation. It was just another day and another speaker to most, but I held my breath in hope that he would not embarrass me by giving some dry discourse.

He was not a towering figure. He did not look like a bishop. He didn’t wear an academic robe. I think that most people thought that he was just a farmer. He approached the rostrum slowly and then said softly:

“I have come to tell you that big potatoes come to the top on rough roads.”

He paused for what seemed like five minutes and then said again — loudly.

“BIG POTATOES DO COME TO THE TOP

ON ROUGH ROADS.”

I looked around me at the students to see how they were reacting, and strangely enough, most of them were staring directly at him. It was as quiet as I had ever known such an assembly to be. Then he began to speak.

“Two farmers lived near to each other out in western Oklahoma. Each had decided to put in a potato crop, and it was harvest time. One farmer had harvested his potatoes and had loaded them into a wagon, and the horses took him to the buyer in the little town only a few miles away. He was back and had a handsome check in his pocket.

“He decided to stop by his neighbor’s farm and see how his friend was harvesting his crop. As he drove into the yard, he saw the man sitting on a bushel basket sorting potatoes.

“The sorting of potatoes was important to the price that you got for your crop, for the buyer paid most for big potatoes and the least for small potatoes. And, if you brought them to him unsorted, you got only the small-potato price.

“’How’s it going?’ the returning farmer asked.

“‘It’s driving me crazy,’ his friend replied. ‘Sorting all of these potatoes is a terrible job. You have to make so many decisions. Sometimes I don’t know if a potato should go in the small basket or the medium basket. I’m not sure when a medium-sized potato becomes a big-potato. These decisions are killing me.”

“Well, the other farmer said, ‘Hiram, that’s not how to sort potatoes. Here’s the way to do it. Put all of your potatoes in the wagon, then take the roughest road you can find into town, and by the time that you get there, all the big potatoes will be on top and the small potatoes will be on the bottom, and the middle-sized potatoes will be in the middle, because big potatoes come to the top on rough roads.

“When you get to the buyer, skim off the potatoes on top and sell them to the buyer. Then skim off all the middle-sized potatoes. Then what’s left will be small potatoes. This way, you will get top dollar and you won’t have to make all of those frustrating decisions.

“Now young people, life is like potatoes. Rough roads are there to sort you out. If you are a small potato you will eventually find yourself at the bottom of life’s heap. If you are a big potato, you will surely rise to the top.

“But, if the roads get rough, no small potato can be kept on top, and no big potato can be kept on the bottom.

“Now, everyone of you will be shaken to pieces by rough roads that you can’t see now, but they are there in your future. You can’t avoid them.”

My father went on to explain what it took to be a big potato. He said that a big potato was one who thought and talked about big things.

A big potato was one who dreamed big dreams. A big potato was one who attempted to do big things. A big potato was one who chose friends who were big in mind, big in vision, and big in spirit.” His last words were:

“Always remember, big potatoes come to the top on rough roads. Don’t moan about your rough roads. Don’t mope that you are having a rough journey. Remember, those rough roads are pushing you to the top, and someday you will appreciate even the rough roads.”

Wisdom is not always cloaked in silk and finery. Sometimes it wears over-alls. Wisdom does not always speak in Elizabethan english. Sometimes it uses double negatives, and colloquial gibberish. Wisdom is not always phrased in philosophical concepts.

Sometimes it is earthy and common. But it is still wisdom. So respect it wherever you find it. It is still more valuable then rubies. That evaluation comes straight from the Bible, and I have never questioned it.

The smallest of events can be life-changing. It doesn’t take much to change the direction of a life. Impact events can be small, but have great consequences. Let me give you a small thought that comes from my wisdom stash.

When I was in kindergarten and in the first grade I had to walk about a mile on a railroad track in order to get to school. Every once in a while I could hear the loud roar of a train coming on that track. I would hurriedly get off the tracks and watch the train go by.

Sometimes there would be two or even three big engines pulling the train. And I would alway count how many cars were on that train. The size and power of the train was awesome to experience.

Just before I had to leave the train tracks to get to my school there was a small junction with a diverter handle on it. If the handle was turned one way, the train would veer off and change its direction, and all the cars that it was pulling would follow it.

If it was left alone the great train and all the cars would continue on, ignoring the possibility of going in a different direction.

Life is like that. We head down our tracks in life going at great speed towards a beautiful destination. But then one small man or some small event, comes out and suddenly turns the handle and you are pushed in a different direction, toward a destination that you had not anticipated.

Then everything changes. Now if they had wanted to change the direction that the train was going, they could have parked a big truck on the tracks. But there are no trucks big enough to stop a couple of locomotives with 100 cars behind them. But with a little engineering, the path of nearly anything can be controlled. And a lot of people will want to control your life too.

My advice is to keep your eyes on the tracks in front of you and watch out for those small diverters. Be your own conductor and keep control of your own train.