Sunday, 8 December 2013

Work Worth Doing

The movie, Bridge to Terabithia entertained and enlightened my Saturday evening. One of the scenes introduces a quote by Theodore Roosevelt. The main character, his best friend and her parents together paint the living room in gold. As they begin, her dad says "You know, The best prize that life has to offer is working hard at work worth doing--Teddy Roosevelt said that, not me." The room, when hit by the evening sun, glows.

The main character goes on to create something beautiful. What an inspiring quote.

In small town Aurora, I grew up watching my dad disappear to the basement most nights after a day of floor installations to work on his craft. He would design and fabricate many primitive tools, including bows, arrows, sheaths, purses and even storage chests. While camping, each year he would take apart the fireplace rock by rock and rework it to professional quality. He lay our cobblestone pathway, built our backyard deck, created a hanging apparatus for our kitchen pots and pans, and did the interior decorating in our house. Always to good taste.

My dad taught me the essence of what that quote means.

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