No One Asked Me But… (May 18, 2022)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… This time of year speakers will be addressing graduating seniors. Old men will tell them the future is theirs. They will say that they are the brightest the world has to offer. They will cure cancer and make the world a better place. It is the same message delivered to my class over 60 years ago. How did that work out?

The grads will be told to set goals. However, I would remind them that life is going to happen to them as they move toward those goals. They will soon learn, in spite of what their parents have told them these last 17 or 18 years, this world is not all about them.

Many of the grads will choose to continue their education at the university level. I remember my first year in college arriving in my English 101 class as a freshman. The professor looked out at the class and said 2 out of 3 of you will not pass this class. I look to my left and there sat a fellow who had been the valedictorian of his graduating class. To my right was a girl looking away from me; girls tend do that when they sit next to me. I tapped her on the shoulder and said: “You ain’t very good at English are you?” And then I noticed her National Honor Society Pin. The professor was correct. Two out of three of us failed that class. I, however, was not one of the two. I went down to the office and dropped the class. I may have been illiterate but I wasn’t stupid.

Here are some of things I believe and would like to pass on to the grads:

• I believe money is a poor way to keep score in the game of life. We need to understand that what we have is not who we are. If the house, the car or boat is how you measure success you can very easily be reduce to nothingness. He who dies with the most money in the bank still dies.
It was at school that I first found out some people had more than I; and for the first time, I questioned my worth as a person.

In elementary school the criteria is not money; it is crayons. The kid with the most crayons is the richest. This one girl had a huge box of crayons. The outside of the box said ALL THE COLORS IN THE WORLD.
She said “I have 16 shades of orange.”

I looked at my box of eight colors, handed down from my older brother. I didn’t even have orange. I had two blues the same shade and one was taped together.

I believe your wealth needs to be measured by what you do for others, the integrity you establish, and the moral example you set because these cannot be taken from you. Build your life on these criteria.

• I believe you have a right to get angry. In fact one of the problems today is that we do not get angry enough.

We should become angry over the moral degeneration of our nation. We should become angry over 60 million aborted babies. We should become angry as our elected officials continue to ignore the Constitution and we continue to lose our rights as American citizens.

That being said, while we have a right to be angry we never have the right to be mean. Mean people are like slinkies; they serve no useful purpose but it is fun to watch them fall down the stairs.

• I believe that your life can be changed in a matter of seconds by people you don’t know and you can change the lives of people you do not know. Many of us believe we are insignificant and the decisions we make are unimportant. It is true that most of us will not be called upon to make what history will call a monumental decision. But let me tell you that you and I make decisions every day that affect other people and will make a difference in their lives. Each and every one of us will make a difference to someone.

• I believe a very important question every person must answer is “WHO AM I? Only after answering this question can you really begin to live a life of your own.

The reason so many people struggle through life is that they never really develop a good solid answer as to who they are.

There are many reasons why the question of “Who Am I” is hard to answer. One of those reasons is we spend so much time allowing other people to answer it for us. We need to understand we are not what we have or what other people believe us to be. Much of my early life was spent allowing others to decide for me who I was and what I was to become.

I have an older brother. He overcame many early setbacks and accomplished so much. He was always brighter than me and a much better athlete.

As a youngster, I idolized him. I wanted to be like him but knew I could never quite measure up. My parents always wanted to know why I couldn’t be like him.

Be yourself, someone has to be and you’re the closest. Until you know who you are you will always be wondering where you are going. It took a long time for me to understand this.

• I believe that your background and circumstances will have an influence on who you are but you are responsible for who you become.

• I believe the most important decision you will make is who you choose to walk through your life with.
I was fortunate that in 1957, when I was 17 years old I met my best friend and we have traveled this world hand in hand for some 65 years.

Someone asked me, “How well do you know your wife?
I said “Are you kidding me; we have been hanging out together since 1957. She raised me!”
They said, “If you know her so well, then what is her favorite flower?”
I said “That is easy. It’s Pillsbury.”

We also chose to walk those years hand in hand with Jesus Christ. Put your hands in the hand of the man who calmed the sea

Thought of the week… Live simply, Love generously, Care deeply, speak kindly and leave the rest up to God. God bless the class of 2022.