My son Harry recently turned 30 years old. He’s the oldest of my seven children. When Harry was a young boy, one of his favorite shows was Sesame Street. You remember Sesame Street don’t you? It was a children’s show that had a cast of characters with names like Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie.
On a Sunday afternoon in March of 1968, when I was 11 years old, one of my aunts packed her 8 children (6 boys and 2 girls) into her station wagon and took them over to my Grandparents’ house to visit. At that time, we lived in the country and my parents’ home was next-door to my grandparents’ home.
Have you ever heard of a “life coach”? Among other things, a life coach is someone who gets paid to provide private coaching to people who are trying to achieve balance in their lives. The areas of life in which balance is ordinarily sought include spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, social and financial (not necessarily in that order).
Larry King, the television talk show host who recently retired from CNN after 25 years of hosting his own show, once commented: “If you want to get on my show, all you need to do is take out a gun and blow your parents away.” He wasn’t encouraging that type of behavior; he was simply stating a fact. What he did not say was: “If you want to get on my show, all you need to do is take care of your elderly parents day after day, month after month, and year after year, until they pass away. After that, I’ll invite you on my show to talk about the heroic sacrifice that you made.”