11 Comments
User's avatar
Robert Leonard's avatar

Pure wisdom...Thank you.

Tim Grover's avatar

Totally agree. Harmon Killebrew, my fave baseball player, told a great story. The bigwigs downtown were giving his dad crap about his yard being torn up. His response? "I'm not raising grass, I'm raising BOYS!!!" That's how I try to live too!

Howard Berger's avatar

I have taught at Lincoln for 14 years. The southside is such a rich and vibrant community.

Sarah Scull's avatar

Home of one of the best marching bands in the state!

Virginia Traxler's avatar

Thank you for this. It sometimes feels hard to find stories of quiet kindness and generosity in our “news” of billionaires, politicians and their often destructive antics that rain down on the rest of us. I join you in your understanding of character and where we find it. Cheers!

Sara Ramsey's avatar

I loved this. I live in a 430-person town an hour from Creston, and it's too small to have a "wrong side of the tracks" - nicer houses sit right next to abandoned ones. But you really see generosity in action here, in ways I never saw when I lived in "nice" neighborhoods in cities.

Sarah Scull's avatar

I relocated from San Diego, so I feel this!

Sara Ramsey's avatar

Amazing parallel - I moved back after spending many years in San Francisco.

Are you going to the Okoboji retreat this year? I'd love to meet you there (if we don't happen to run into each other in southern Iowa before then).

Annette Rice's avatar

This is a terrific piece, Sarah. Thanks for coming back! 😍

Paul A. Brewer's avatar

Great story! My childhood neighborhood was on the wrong side of BOTH tracks. Looking back, it all still seems wonderfully idyllic - and we were taught in much the same way you are teaching your kids. Thank you for sharing this.

Denise OBrien's avatar

Thank you Sarah! Our family has lived by your words and have had a very satisfying life.

“I think the greatest act of resistance we can do is to assume less, ask more, and judge slower.”