Happy Sunday Everyone:
Tom and Ginger Marckwardt are my mom and dad, one is 76, the other 77, I dare not say which one is older but I will tell you my mom likes younger men. They live 3 miles down the road. I’ll not make this a love story although there is certainly a love story to be told after 53 years of a quality marriage. Most of us, if not all of us, learn/learned a great deal from our parents. Everyone’s story is different but we’re all united in that we looked at our own life growing up and decided we wanted more of it or less of it, for ourselves, and for many of us, our kids. Somehow I hit the lotto on parents, my kids even more so in the grandparent category. I asked my parents “why weren’t you this nice to me” when watching them with jack & Thomas, their response is it’s their opportunity for righting the wrongs of their parenting with us, “mostly” joking.
The point here is not to divulge my love & respect for my parents to all of you but to acknowledge I’m still learning through their actions. My mom had her 2nd knee replacement 3 weeks ago, my dad had a shoulder surgery last week. 3 days after knee surgery my mom walked a mile, 2 days after shoulder surgery my dad road his stationary bike for an hour. The examples throughout my life are endless with both of them, and maybe this isn’t the best example, but my point here is they just deal with whatever is thrown their way. Kim said to my mom “Ginger, lay in bed and watch Netflix for a day”..my mom said “Why?”. My parents were talking about having to park somewhere far away, I said, “get one of those temporary handicap stickers for your car”..my dad’s response, “why, we’re not handicapped”. Although it wasn’t stated in my house growing up, there should have been a sign above the door that read “no excuse zone, deal with it”. It wasn’t a harsh environment and it wasn’t preached to my sister and me, I just know in hindsight, I always watched my parents just deal with whatever was thrown their way, and there were some big things thrown their way.
I can tell you for me personally, I’ve had a few situations come up recently that cause me to now reflect on “how” I dealt with it. There are two ways to “deal” with a situation, you can hit it head on and take responsibility, or you can make excuses. In one sense you’re driving for an outcome (good/bad), the other you’re playing the victim and allowing others to dictate the outcome (good/bad). I’ve been on both sides of this where I’ve been the “deal with it” guy, and other times “the excuse” guy. Being on the “deal with it” side of things is empowering and creates confidence for future “deal with it” situations and events. Being on the “excuse” side of things is debilitating and weak, and leads to a victim mindset.
With all that is happening in the world right now, we are all in situations on a more pronounced level to make the choice of “deal with it” or make excuses and let someone/something else determine the outcome for you. Having thought through this here, I’ll be more vigilant whenever my head starts drifting toward the excuse side of things and get myself back on track to just deal with it. Thankfully I have great examples in my parents to see the outcome of events throughout their lives when they just dealt with it.
We have offices in Tampa, not KC, so I’m going with Brady today.