Tears streamed down my face as I got off the school bus.
“Are you ok?” asked my dad.
“No!” I replied. “I didn’t win the science fair because someone ruined my project! I never win ” “ something always goes wrong.”
He picked me up and placed me on his lap. “Let me tell you something. When I was your age, my grandmother ” “ your great-grandmother ” “ made butter. I remember it just like it was yesterday. She would lift her long skirt and place the butter churn between her feet. She would raise and lower the paddle over and over again, for what seemed like hours to me. Sometimes she would let me do it, but I wouldn’t last long and she would take over again. Anyway, after she churned, the butter, or cream as we called it, would separate from the buttermilk and rise to the top. The cream always rises to the top. I want you to remember that, son. It will take a lot of hard work, but never give up, because the cream always rises to the top.”
Whenever I was discouraged, my dad would repeat this story. I always thought that he mean that the “best” would always win in the end. That’s not always the case though. You see, while the cream is good, the buttermilk is just as good, just in a different way. Sometimes, in life, the best doesn’t always win. Sometimes, the “worst” does.
So what was the real lesson in his story? I think what I really needed to take away from the story was the three P’s ” “ patience, persistence and perseverance. I’ll discuss these further in my next article.