The Learning curve Part 2

The Learning curve By David Robinson.

Psalm Studios Productions

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

One other thing that life's classroom taught me was that credentials on a wall plaque do not make you into a decent human being. I used to look up to people who had letters after their names. I admired them even though I wasn't sure what the letter stood for. However, life soon opens the eyes of the innocent, and it wasn't long before I realized that the well healed in society had often more to be ashamed of than those in abject poverty. I witnessed this as a child and as a teenager as the rich became richer by squashing the poor under their feet. Things haven't changed much either since this peril of wisdom became mine. Human beings still use the law of the jungle to make themselves taller by standing on the corpses of those less fortunate than themselves. However, I have learned that the mighty fall. I've stood at the hospital bed praying for children whose parents suddenly discovered that wealth couldn't buy them everything after all. I've learned that pain and suffering happen to the rich and to the poor alike. I've learned that a person's life can be changed in a moment by circumstances that can't be foreseen. I've learned the hard way that today's best friends can also so easily become tomorrow's greatest enemies. Yes, life is a learning curve, a schoolmaster with an ever growing blackboard and enough chalk to teach you something new every single day of your life. Another precious thing I learned the hard way, it's not what you have in your life, but who you have in your life that counts. Things may rust, you see, they may rust and get tattered and torn, but true friends will remain when it matters most. All of us need friends. We need the company of people who care and often strive and seek in all the wrong places to find them. I've learned that fair weather friends are like rusty old cars. As long as you put loads in, they'll be there for you, but stop feeding their needs and they abandon you by the wayside. The Big Book says a true friend loves at all times. I've learned that you can say something in an instant that will give you a heartache for a lifetime. It's true, isn't it? We get upset, we say something we don't mean, and it escapes from our hearts through our mouth, and suddenly we realize that the damage has been done. The Big Book says we should be swift to hear and slow to speak and slow to get angry. Did I hear you say Urch? Well, join the club. If we weren't as quick to run off at the mouth, our friends might be slower in abandoning us. I've also learned that it takes years to build up trust and only seconds to destroy it. We live in a society which teaches if it feels right to you, just do it. Little wonder then that there's so little trust anymore. Little wonder that a man's word is no longer his bond. You see, folks, just because it feels right to have an affair doesn't make it right. Just because it feels good to stuff your body with booze or drugs doesn't mean that it's right. And if it's not right then someone's trust and dependence on you is broken and destroyed. And what then? Of all the great truths I have learned, two took longer than all the rest put together. This learning curve was a hard one, but it changed my life forever.