Wisdom from a Turtle: Thirty-Something Years of Seemingly Unimportant Decisions

Chapter 1:

Do You Still Need to Be Forgiven If You Didn’t Mean It?

Growing up, I don’t think there was ever a time that I truly felt comfortable with my family relationships. I can’t quite explain why or how, but my little world just seemed incomplete sometimes.

Being an only child from a semi-broken home accounts for some of it, but it was more than that. When I was about seven years old, my grandparents suggested to my father that he take me to the beach for a weekend bonding experience. Spending time with my dad didn’t seem like too much fun, but the trip sounded like a good idea nonetheless.

My dad and I hit the boardwalk on a nice sunny day. We played pinball and video games at the arcade, we did miniature golf, and then we got to the go-cart course. I’ve always loved vehicles of any kind, and this was surely to be the highlight of the trip. They were not just kiddie carts, but gasoline-powered motor cars that now, incidentally, require you to show a driver’s license to rent. So we got strapped in, each in our own carts, me behind my dad. My dad turned around to me and said, Whatever you do, don’t hit me.

I made a very careful mental note not to hit him. We went around the track a few times, and it was awesome! As the flag came out, I let off the gas early in an effort to coast to a stop in plenty of time to not hit my dad. As I found out, go-carts don’t really coast and the car pretty much stopped when I let off the gas, which was well before the check-in area. By this time, the carny worker was hollering at me to pull the car forward. I eased the gas pedal down. I also found out that the gas pedal on a go-cart is not very sensitive and must be pushed down almost all the way before the car moves. Needless to say, when the car started moving, it was going at about full speed. Before I could stop it again, I plowed into the back of my dad’s car, which totally gave him whiplash. I think this was the first time I saw fire in another person’s eyes. Before I could explain what happened in my disoriented state, my dad yanked me by the arm back to the car and home we went, traveling in silence. I couldn’t believe that—even as careful as I thought I was being—I still hit my dad.

I felt like it was destined to happen this way and I would never earn my father’s trust again. As it stood, that was the last father-son activity we ever really did together. Sure, we went bowling a few times because my father was in a league. We did some stuff with my dad’s girlfriends and their kids, of course. But it was never just me and my dad again. It took six months of therapy for me to realize that this was a fairly traumatic experience for me growing up. All these years, I had felt like it was my own lack of awareness that had caused the accident and I was hopelessly incapable of doing anything right. I now understand that shit just happens and how we deal with it defines us as people and not the incident itself. Thinking about my dad’s perspective, it’s okay to be angry about a situation, but you have to let it go eventually.

In the Bible, a guy is talking to Jesus about forgiveness. He asks Jesus how many times he should forgive someone before giving up. Jesus replies that so long as someone is trying to do right, you should forgive that person an infinite number of times. It seems that more people would have better relationships if they actually made an effort to do right and if other people forgave them more readily when they made a mistake.

Chapter 2:

Think of Junk Mail as Free Scrap Paper!

My grandparents mostly raised me, and all of my needs and most of my wants were met. Although no one in the family had a particularly high income, we usually had money to buy important things as we scrimped and saved on the basics.

The junk drawer in Grandma’s kitchen was full of twist ties, rubber bands, scrap paper, and anything else that could be reused.

Grandma spent many hours clipping coupons and explained to me how you could save even more if an item was on sale, but that sometimes a name-brand item on sale still cost more than the generic equivalent. Of course, we didn’t compromise on some things, like Coca-Cola or Jimmy Dean sausage.

When it came to clothing, I was always a good five years behind the styles. We mostly shopped at the Salvation Army secondhand store.

Grandma even knew which days they put new stuff on the racks so we could go and get first pick. She figured a growing boy didn’t need new clothes for play, and since I went to Catholic school, I already had a uniform for that. Grandma actually made me a pair of shorts once to wear for my eighth-grade field trip to Kings Dominion. The jams were bright orange and yellow Hawaiian print and they fit perfectly—standing up, that is. At some point during our trip to the amusement park, I bent over and they split right down the butt seam. One of the teachers had to safety pin them shut to keep my butt from showing and, in a way, it sort of ruined the day.

The next year, I was thrown into the public school system like a dog to wolves. The other kids quickly pointed out to me that things like my parachute pants were years out of style. I realized that wearing a uniform to school all the years prior had not been such a bad thing after all. Despite my vocalization of the ridicule, my father and new stepmother rarely bought me new clothes, and certainly nothing fashionable.

If I wore through a knee in my jeans, they would just iron on one of those patches. What’s funny is that nowadays, most fashionable jeans come with the holes already in them.

I didn’t complain too often about my wardrobe, but when I did, I was told that when I got a job and made big bucks, I could buy whatever I wanted. Sure enough, when I started working, I did buy a few nice things for myself.

Of course, once I was on my own and had bills and rent to pay, I did save where I could and tried to make things last. I honestly did continue to shop at the secondhand stores until I was like twenty-five—and, yes, I even knew what days they put new stuff on the