Ryan’s Wisdom

I am sharing this message from my Facebook friend, Ryan, who is the 18 year old son of one of my dearest friends from business school.  I continue to be in awe of the youth of today in general, and of Ryan in particular.  He is showing wisdom beyond his years (I was NOT that wise at 18!).  I mean – at 18 years old, to be doing a musical retrospective on your life?

Take particular note of what Ryan speaks to:

1. he has never forgotten what someone said to him, even though he doesn’t remember who it was.  We want to be careful and loving about the words we speak – they have impact, positive or negative, long after we are forgotten
2. the importance of organizations like the Boys Scouts in raising amazing young men like Ryan.  Do we give them our support in time, talent and/or treasure?
3. looking into your past, not to beat up on yourself, but to see how far you have come – and then make improvements
4. power of music – so often we dismiss what young people listen to, without listening to it ourselves.    How much we could learn about others, but tuning into what they are listening to!

Today, I invite you to acknowledge, salute and love the youth of today and in particular, all the young men, who so often get a bad rap from us.  They are fabulous, wise and wonderful!!!  And for those youth who you are blessed to have in your personal life – tell them how much you love and admire them!

Here is Ryan’s message.  And beneath that, I have posted a link to a video on another amazing young man – Patrick Henry Hughes.   The video is also in the right hand column of this blog, in the Featured Video section.

RYAN’S MESSAGE:

I was going through my iTunes library recently and I came to realize that particular songs made me think of something that has happened in my life; good and bad. Having said that, I went and made a set list named “Story of My Life”. Almost 900 songs and this is the first time I have ever stopped to think about how so much of my life could be told one way or another through music. If someone asked me to tell them about my life, this is exactly what I would give them. My first year in Boy Scouts, one of the adult leaders of my troop told me that “you should look behind you on occasion, to look at where you have been”. He said that to me on a hike and I haven’t forgotten it. I can’t for the life of me remember who he was, but what he said to me that day means a lot to me. I believe that people should look into their past, regardless of what might be in it, and see how far they have come, and see if they can’t improve upon themselves if need be. Musically inclined or not, many of us could describe our lives through music. I wanted to put that up on your site, but wasn’t sure where it would fit in. If you don’t think it really fits, that is perfectly fine, I just thought I should tell you about this ‘revelation’ if that’s what it would be called.

Patrick Henry Hughes – an amazing young man and his dad