Lessons Learned

There are two things that have been on my mind lately, not really related, only in the sense that I know my family has passed them down and I am so thankful for them.

The first dealing with racism. This past Monday was Martin Luther King Jr Day, a holiday and for a lot of people, just a day without work. This was the first time for me that it meant the most to me. I listened to a sermon from Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago by Pastor Bill Hybels on Monday. I was moved to tears as he described the disturbing and infuriating reality of what the people who now make up the USA did to so many other people who were seen as 'less'. Near the end of his message he said that racism is a learned behavior, and most of the time it is learned in families.

That statement made me think of my family. I remember when I found out about the American Girl doll collection for the first time. I was looking through the catalog and found the most beautiful doll. I wanted her. I was only eight years old and was just enamored with her beauty and wanted her to be mine so much. My grandparents gave me Addy Walker, the African American doll. No one in my family said anything about it, to me it was just fine until a friend or someone I knew asked why I would choose a doll that doesn't look anything like me. I remember feeling so hurt and sad by that. I had never considered getting a doll that looked like me! I wanted the most beautiful one! It must have been an issue because I remember my dad talking about how my grandpa responded to any type of racial comments or actions, anger. It was NOT allowed. Grandpa had NO TOLERANCE for racism. Grandpa was a calm man and dad would probably say today that he did not lose his temper often, but this was an area that was not tolerable, ever. My dad says that some of his childhood friends who lived on the same block were Hispanic and people had problems playing with them. He said in the Williamson family, it is not like that. They are people too. We are to treat them no different. We are not better just because of a different skin color.

I am so thankful that I learned about race from my family. Sure, I have learned so much more from living with people who are brown & black, but a lot of it is as Bill Hybels said, a learned behavior. Now some of my closest, deepest friends are of a different skin color and I'm the one in the 'minority'. I love it. I would not ever ask for it any different.

The other thing, totally not related, but has been on my mind a lot is the whole idea of a strong work ethic.

This too I believe is learned from the family. I am so thankful for my great parents who taught us from a young age the importance of hard work and attention to details. I remember times where I got in trouble for not being observant. That happened a lot. Now I work in a job that requires my every step to be observant. Every detail matters. This isn't just about hard work, I feel like it also encompasses taking good care of what you have. Maybe because when one works hard for what they have, the appreciate it more? I don't know, but I do know that my parents drilled it into our heads that a messy room communicates that we did not care about our toys. They told us to keep track of our belongings. Dad always told me that if a job was worth doing, it was worth doing well. I always follow that up with, the job is probably worth doing, so I had better do a good job, wait, the best I can do!

I do not say all this to brag, I just had to write out in words the thoughts that have been rolling around in my head this week. I am so thankful for these things from my family. Good lessons learned...and still learning!