YOUR RIGHT TO BE WRONG
--from Steve Goodier's "Deciding How to Live"

A humorous story has it that a newly appointed young clergy person was
contacted by a local funeral director to hold a graveside service at a
small country cemetery in Iowa. There was
to be no funeral, just the committal, because the deceased had no
family or friends left in the state.

The young pastor started early to cemetery, but soon became lost. After
making several wrong turns, he finally arrived a half-hour late. The
hearse was nowhere in sight and cemetery workers were relaxing under a
near-by tree, eating their lunch.

The pastor went to the open grave and found that the vault lid was
already in place. He took out his book and read the service. As he returned
to his car, he overheard one of the workers say, "Maybe we'd better
tell him it's a septic tank."

Why is it we make our biggest mistakes in public? And some people can't
avoid it...former hockey goalie Jacques Plante wonders, "How would you
like a job where, if you made a mistake, a big, red light goes on and
18,000 people boo?"

But we should never give up our right to be wrong. Good judgment comes
from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. It is your
right to be wrong. "No (one) ever became great or good except through many
and great mistakes," said William E. Gladstone. Great mistakes are
opportunities for great learning. And great learning makes for great
living.

You have a right to be wrong. And if you are to build a great life, you
have a duty to make great mistakes. If possible, laugh at them. Always
learn from them. And try to make sure your next mistake is one you
haven't made before!

TO THOSE WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while
they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and
didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and
when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we
took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special
treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE
actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with
sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because we were always outside
playing.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were
back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride
down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running
into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at
all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no
cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms.
We had friends and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in
us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks
and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not
put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or
rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who
didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem
solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how
to deal with it all