Handle With Care

Articles

Handle With Care

By Bob D. Caterino
Sept. 26, 2005

Our children are supposed to do better then us. This my friends is a given. When I was eight I was able to take guitar lessons. This was good for me and after two years and having the fortune of having perfect pitch along with natural raw talent the best I could do was a garage band when I was thirteen. Being so talented it was very hard for the others to keep up so I just played for my friends and family. This is not boasting when it is indeed factual. My father was just an alcoholic. Now I have done better then he did so therefore I fulfilled my destiny. This was not fair to me. If ones parents is a deadbeat drug addict then how fare is that. The child doesn't have to stretch and strive to become better all he really has to do is read a book and work to be better.

Now I had a son when I was twenty one and he was around the same age as I when I decided it was time for him to learn to play the guitar. I sat him down and taught him a few things. I went back to his room in a few weeks and low and behold he was better at the damn thing then I was. This got me thinking. I knew then that competition was a factor in breeding a great person and the better that I did with my life would have to force him to do even better then I. I studied the computer and as you may have guessed he surpassed me in everyway. Imagine if I were president? I guess he would strive to be king of the world.

I realized I was on to something here. I now have three children. One, the first one plays Guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and anything he sets his mind to play. He works all over New York City in a band called "The Greylocks" My daughter sings like a bird and my now eleven year old plays violin and after three weeks is doing very well for himself. I am proud of all of them. If they start writing books then I am in trouble.

This may be off the beaten path but, I moved to a place called Greenville, South Carolina. I was a big city guy so was aware of the no tree policies the big cities have. Living in Greenville I noticed that the town was growing very rapidly. I wondered why no one had complained about all the trees that once made Greenville green, were going. One southerner told me that they wanted to make Greenville like New York. I only asked one question, "why?" Threes were being cut down faster then the rain forests had ever been. Like magic they were gone. I wrote the piece on behalf of the land that once was greener then it is now. No one heard or bothered to think about the consequences. Now two years later I hear pockets of interest in the subject and that's a start. I surely hope that I was the inkling of a diminutive voice that started the rumble. It makes me feel good to know that I did something about something I believe in strongly.

Now getting back to the children, doing things are nice and if the children can do it better then there parents that's great. I know add substance to there agenda. I know they will strive to do better then me and will definitely try a little harder. Ideas are my idea. If I strive to feed the children with great ideas then they will only undermine me and try to one up me and that my friends is a great thing.

Next time you have got to think about the small things in life. If you smoke, take a drink or do anything that may not be in the child's best interest then think about it. They may just try to do you one better so proceed with caution. They want to be just like you, they idolize you in every way. When someone says "We do it for the future generations, don't say "well I'll be dead by then" or "what the hell do I care." Just think about making your children better then you. This is life so take care of it. Buy a book and read to them. give them something to cling to. Um, a, "Growing Up Goomba" is one great book and I know it will definitely serve the future generations at my house directly. Just a shameless plug by yours truly.

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About the author: Bob D Caterino is a writer that we all either hate or love. His work can be found at http://www.ebookmall.com/ebook/163906-ebook.htm. My website: www.geocities.com/bdcaterino

I found this fan site aimed towards me: http://www.geocities.com/goombabobby

He hopes the death threats will stop. Its only words he uses. Laugh and lighten up will ya?

Email: VitoGoomba@aol.com

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