iPods and Sneakers

Is that really what most kids are interested in these days?  iPods and Sneakers?  That’s what I heard on a news segment today.  If so, I think it has more to do with what the parents are doing than what the kids really want.  We all recognize that parents have to set an example for their kids to follow.  Parents have to demonstrate that they care for their children.  Parents have to provide learning opportunities for their children.  If the parents are unable to partially or totally meet their responsibilities to their children, then someone else must step in.  Very few of us are leaders.  Most of us are followers.  So it is with our children. 

My parents were hard-working laborers.  My dad worked in a steel mill and my mom worked in a textile mill.  They were the offspring of German and Austrian immigrants.  The only language they heard around the house growing up was German.  My mom and dad, and their siblings, had few friends because they had difficulty speaking the language.  So they socialized with each other.  They had difficulty learning.  Their parents were unable to help them because of their own language issues, and also because they had a farm to operate.  My grandparents, and my parents, had very little and accumulated very little during their lives.  But they were great people and fine role models.  Their shared their values with their offspring and they ingrained their values in us with loving discipline.

Until I was 15 years old, my horizon was also limited by the limited vision of my family.  I simply didn’t know what the world offered and I didn’t know how to ask about it.  I was a poor student because I didn’t understand the value of learning, and where learning could take me.  Then I met my future wife Kay.  She was an honors student.  Her family owned businesses and they were successful.  Kay and her family exposed me to a world I did not know existed.  It was a world filled with interesting people, who talked about fascinating subjects, and who dreamed big dreams.  Slowly, with Kay’s encouragement, I began to dream.  Thanks to the values my parents took time to share with me, I had at least the virtues of industry and honesty to lead me in the pursuit of my dream.

Where do iPods and Sneakers come from?  What are their lives like?  I’m sure my oldest granddaughter knows they don’t just appear on the shelves of her favorite stores, or in the virtual malls that reside n her computer.  But I wonder if she knows this: 

iPods and sneakers come from dreams. 

iPods and sneakers experience success. 

iPods and sneakers know failure. 

iPods and sneakers understand the joys of labor. 

iPods and sneakers practice discipline.

iPods and sneakers are smart.

iPods and sneakers get frustrated.

iPods and sneakers appreciate the value of the ups and downs of life. 

iPods and sneakers are the tangible representations of the dreams of a human being. 

A lot of fun in life is in chasing a dream, in learning how to overcome obstacles, in feeling the thrill of winning because we know the heartbreak of losing.  When your son or daughter asks for iPods and sneakers, remind them what those items really represent:  they represent someone else’s dream.  Remind them that someone developed a dream into an idea, then into a concept, then into a design, they manufactured a product, they developed a marketing plan, they hired good people, arranged financing, and brought their dream to the marketplace.  They surely failed many times in the process before they succeeded.  It was a thrilling experience for the dreamer. 

iPods and sneakers are the tangible products of a dream.  But the intangibles … those innermost feelings of knowing that we accomplished something great; that we have helped a lot of people through employment, through investment, through providing an opportunity; seeing the joy in others from something we started … the intangibles are the things that go unnoticed when you simply walk into a store and purchase iPods and sneakers.

Children deserve to enjoy iPods and sneakers but they should also pay tribute to the process that makes it possible.  Moms and dads and other people join to provide the tribute.