Hand-Me-Down

Hand-Me Down

July 9, 2012

Growing up in a large family meant a few givens.  We ate left-over’s and we wore hand-me-down clothes.  Many times I’ve had to grow into and then out of a coat before passing it along to my brother. 

Hand-me-down ideas get passed along as well.  Just look at prejudices that exist between nationalities of people that have been passed on for generations, even centuries. 

Religions are good at passing along hand-me-down rules.  I remember the day when going to the movies was a fast ticket into hell.  And so was cigarette smoking and ladies wearing makeup.

Hand-me-down ideas exist.  Some are terrific.  Some are so passé.

Here are some good ones:

Honesty

Integrity

Promptness

Now what about some grey areas?

Some religious beliefs

Child rearing practices

Management and people skills

Note this:

Two sons of a drunkard father turned out completely opposite from each other.  One became a drunkard, like his father.  The other became a teetotaler.

Later in life, when asked why they turned out the way they did, each son gave the exact same answer.

“With a father like I had, what would you expect?”

One accepted the hand-me-down role model he saw and followed it.  The other son, seeing the ugly side of this road, chose to strike out on a new path. 

Denis Waitley, motivational speaker, told this story;

Every Easter his family would serve a delicious ham for their dinner.  As his wife was preparing the ham, she cut off the ends of the ham.  Denis asked her why she did that.

“Because my momma always did that.”

He called momma and asked her why she cut off the ends of the ham.

She said, “Because my momma always did that.”

Since the grandmother was still alive, Denis called her and asked why she cut off the ends of the ham before baking it.

She replied, “Because my baking dish is too small.”

That is hand-me-down thinking. 

What are your child-disciplining habits?  Where did you learn them? 

Just because someone taught us a skill, 

or we observed one way 

of performing a task 

does not mean 

that is the only way. 

The worst thing to do is hold onto an idea just because it was given to you, without question, without context, and without knowing why.

The best thing is to develop reasoning, ideas; philosophies because you have given thought, explored, and read from some trusted sources and experienced some of it for yourself. 

“The unexamined life is not worth living,” 

-Socrates

I don’t think he was a big fan of hand-me-down thinking. 

Michael Biggs

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