I have made it a practice in my life to surround myself with folks who don’t cut me any slack. In my humble opinion, if a person loves you enough they will be able to cut through life’s pleasantries and tell you like it is. I guess I was indoctrinated with this idea since birth, since my sassy little mother couldn’t tell a “non truth” if her life depended on it. As a child I was blessed with an incredible support system, yet I knew if I asked what my mother thought, I would always get the truth … and sometimes even when I didn’t ask for it! Being reared this way, it has not only shaped who I am as an adult, it was also been a prerequisite of who I choose for my inner circle of friends
My first very best friend was Tim Stone, he has held this distinct honor since his birth and I was two. We really had no choice in the matter given our Dad’s were best friends since their childhood. I found very quickly that Tim was the real deal, and managed to keep him close throughout high school. I know to this day, if I needed someone to walk with me through the fire… and tell me along the way how I actually created the inferno, I could count on Tim. Although now we live two times zones apart, I still consider him to one of my best friends. I remember following a church youth group one night, we discussed the deep philosophical issue of who we considered to be friends. Tim, a very deep thinker, made the statement; true friendship is what the Bible teaches, “no greater love than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.” He followed this profound revelation by saying, “you know this is the kind of friendship that you would dive in the path of a bullet to save your friends life.”
This was no more apparent than when as young adults we decided to go canoeing. Well… let’s just say there is a reason I left the event with the nickname “Pam Tipie-Canoe.” It had been raining for what seemed to be 40 days and nights in southwest Arkansas and all the rivers where running so fast we were afraid to put in the boats. So… since we wanting to get out feet wet, we decided to launch those stupid canoes on a local lake. Of course we didn’t bother to think about speedboats and the fact it was Memorial Day weekend. I do swim, but I have never considered myself a strong swimmer, so of course I made sure I had one of those bulky orange life vests around me and hopped into the canoe. I hopped in this little boat not thinking about the possible consequences. Sure enough, we were halfway across when some smart soul thought it would be funny to race by us in their speedboat… we tossed and turned, did every thing possible to stabilize but to my fear a 100 yards from the shore, we tipped over. All I remember is that stupid life jacket floated up to my ears and sinking. I began screaming… “Tim, my feet are filling up” and grabbed him around the neck for dear life. He was polite enough not to actually laugh at me until we got to the shore. At that very moment I understood what he meant years ago…a real friend will save your sorry behind before you go under! One of Tim’s favorite topics happens to be… if you talk to talk, you better walk the walk.
This week, you can imagine the look on my face when I was blind-sighted with the same response from one of our counselors. All day I had been telling truants the same thing, “There are things in life we don’t want to do, but we have to do them anyway.” “I don’t want to be here at 8:00 a.m. either, but I have to be here and so do you”! I was rather pleased with myself sharing my infinite wisdom with the children until…
At the end of the day I was discussing my inability to diet and exercise with one of our school counselors. She looked me squarely in the eye and said, “Pam, you need to practice what you preach.” “There are some things in life you don’t want to do, but you have to do them for your health and well being.” OUCH!!! That statement works much better going the other direction. The reality of this concept became painfully apparent when my doctor told me this week that she had done a fasting blood test and my sugar was high.
Although I was blessed with diabetes in my genes, I had always dodged it. As a child my mother drug me from doctor to doctor having those stupid glucose tests done. You know, the kind that the poke you with a needle every 30 minutes for four hours to see if your sugar is high. I had boasted… I could never regulate my sugar because I enjoy eating too much. Today, I had to eat crow.
I guess to make sense of all this nonsense, today I learned two lessons that needs to be shared with our kids. First, choose your friends wisely. If they allow you to make stupid decisions they are not really your friends. And secondly, if you continually make bad decisions whether it be with food, drugs, alcohol, etc, eventually it WILL catch up with you.
The state of California has launched a huge anti-obesity campaign removing all sodas and junk food from schools. As much as the candy sales will hurt our club funding, teaching our kids to take care of themselves is critical. Personally, I have made this counselor my accountability partner to stay on my behind if I don’t work out everyday. My principal has agreed to do a popular diet program with me. Let’s help our kids make good choices, before they have to rely on the truthfulness of their own friends.
