Grandpa Joe and the broken glass

Grandpa Joe said a lot of things over the years. Some comments were offhand, some in anger, and some actually humorous. Many of them were sage, to give him his due. I've remembered a few of his words on these pages. Some of the forgotten ones will at times become unforgotten. One such popped into my head a few minutes ago.

One of my kids once dropped a glass on his kitchen floor during a visit. Naturally it shattered into a zillion shards which required cleaning up, and careful steps for awhile. As I began to admonish the boy (it was one of my sons but I don't remember which) Joe simply remarked, "Well, I've never known one to wear out."

There's something to that attitude. I don't think he meant to not chastise the lad, or not encourage him to be more careful in the future. I think what he meant was to say what had to be said and then let it go. It was only a drinking glass. They don't wear out.

I think too he was probably only being a grandfather (all right, great grandfather in this case) who didn't want the kid to get into serious trouble over an accident. He was softer at that age than he had been when younger. Still, I've come to appreciate what he said that Sunday evening long ago. When something's relatively unimportant don't overreact. Perhaps we can all learn from that.