Role Models And Knowledge

My brother Herbert was very tall when he was about sixteen. Our neighbor Arnold was very short. They were friends and when Herb and Arnie were together, Herb would lean down a bit to Arnie’s size. Dad would see this and always said to his son “Never lower yourself to his height, let him stand tall to reach yours.” Dad, himself was not very tall, but he knew that this was the right way to teach his son. Stand tall in everything you try and do. If you own little stoches ( ornaments, statues) and your house is full of them, like mine is, you know in an instant, you can drop one while dusting them off or one can somehow magically move around and it will shatter. You have to be so careful and sometimes, I get lazy and do not pick them up to clean them; I will dust around them which is not great, but better than not doing it at all or having them shatter. I try to stand tall when it is time to clean and reach up and do the higher shelves and we all know as we grow older, they say we shrink a bit. When I have to fill out on a form perhaps in a doctor’s office, I still put the same height down. I really do not want to know if I have grown downward or shattered some of me off. They say that being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect; it means you have decided to see beyond the imperfections. There are people who sometimes hurt your heart with things they say and it makes you wonder what kind of a heart they do have or do not have. There was an article about a dog that had a good heart; he lived with another dog in the home and the other dog that he did not mingle with too much, became blind. Somehow the second dog realized this and he helped the blind dog to see where the food bowl was and where the toys were. My brother had two dogs similar to these two. One was a German Shepherd and the other one was a Schnauzer. They both disliked each other very much and were this way for about ten years. One day, the Schnauzer was too lame to walk much and the German Shepherd realized this and would roll the food bowl towards him or he would pick out pieces of the food and bring it to the sick dog to eat. It was amazing to see the big dog become like a Mama dog to the one he disliked for such a long time. Both stories show that even dogs have a kind spot in their heart for a fellow dog that needs his touch People who hurt your heart for no reason than to say or do something nasty are not as kind as these two sets of dogs. Winston Churchill said “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.” Another saying is “The future depends on what we do in the present.”Both are quite meaningful. In life, we often reap good rewards, mental rewards by giving of ourselves to help others. A dancing friend from Washington State wrote to me the following words “Please keep your writings to us for it is so inspirational to all of us that read it. Please keep on being such a role model.” Steven Behr, Sr. A doctor once told me about another doctor (dermatologists) that on every spot he saw on a patient’s body, he would take a biopsy. There were two reasons for this he said. One was that he was afraid if he did not, then he might be sued for not finding out exactly what the spot was. The other was that he at his young age of being in practice for about less than ten years did not have a “knowledgeable eye Let us see what a knowledgeable eye means. In this dermatology practice, it meant that one doctor with more experience was able to distinguish the difference between something important and perhaps not as harmful to the patient. The more knowledgeable eye could distinguish without a biopsy whether it needed to be biopsied. Therefore, the young doctor every time he spotted a ‘spot’ sent off the biopsy to a lab, causing more medical dollars to be spent and more anguish on the part of the patient waiting for results. I went to the younger doctor once and he did that to me with a tiny innocuous spot. I was shocked he did the biopsy and I heard the nurse say they were sending out thirty-five for the day. It came back fine after me worrying for 7 days and he the older doctor said “he does not have a knowledgeable eye. Stay away from him.” Experience in every walk of life is important. How do we get that experience? We obtain it by doing, working, learning, knowing and living. My husband had a professor when he was in pharmacy school that always said “If you can’t do it, do it anyway.” There is another saying/thought “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. That is why we call it the present.” Knowledge is good for today, tomorrow and the next day. It is indeed a gift of something we can do for ourselves and if we cannot do it, do it anyway. The two dog stories exemplify that even animals have a heart towards an ill doggie friend, that people have hearts towards who may need a helping hand that we make our life from what we give especially in emotions. Our future and that of our heirs does depend on what we do now in the present, which is the gift of life we have now. Role models in anything we do, people who care, even doggies aiding other animals, and knowledgeable eyes, hearts, helping hands and devotion to others, guide us to make us the ultimate good example, mentor, idol, star and someone to look up to. As Joseph B. Sohmer (my late dad) said to my brother Herbert about seventy years ago, “let someone stand tall to reach you, do not lower yourself to reach them.” Let us all stand tall and be proud of who we are, what we are doing and what we can do, even if we think we cannot do it. We can, we will and knowledge reigns. Today, May 8th would have been my late mom’s 105th birthday. Mom, you were my role model. You will never be forgotten. If I am always trying to be kind and do nice things, I learned it from the knowledge you gave to me growing up. ELITA SOHMER CLAYMAN FAIRFAX STATION PATCH