Generation Next

One of the greatest things that can happen in our lives is to see folks younger than ourselves taking an interest in the things the older generation finds pleasurable and or worthwhile. So it was with some satisfaction that I got to spend some Out of the Woodwork time with my two granddaughters and my two sons. We got a chance to spend a couple hours making some useful stuff out of trees that grew not too far from where we turned them into items of utility.

Cutting boards are always fun projects for me ever since making the obligatory pig-shaped one for my mother in 7th grade shop class over 60 years ago. Dad ran that one through the planer a time or two over the years to smooth up the knife-scarred surface and although the pig got thinner, it still functions pretty much as it did when new. My daughter-in-law indicated that she would like a couple small boards to use as general use and sandwich servers and, inspired by her request, off to the wood shop we went. Each granddaughter made a cutting board making use of some tools that their great grandfather bought for the shop long before they were born and I have to believe that he was smiling with approval.

Should I be given the opportunity to work with my kids and grand kids in coming days that will be cherishable, The places where we get to intersect with the younger folks diminish, especially as they mature into adulthood. If you have opportunities to do things with your heirs, take advantage of the chance to make memories not just for you, but for them. Steven Covey, in his great book. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, suggested that habit number 2 was to consider what you would like people to say about you at your funeral. We would all do well to want those who survive us to say that we shared that which God gave us with the younger folks.