by Peter Twitchell
Today I remember my dad, David Adams Twitchell, who was two days old when his mother died of tuberculosis back in 1924. He was raised by the Williams Family in Akiak, Alaska. He served in Normandy, France during World War II. He returned home after the war with a purple heart and Bronze star medal for carrying a fellow wounded soldier at night, back to their lines. He served with General Patton in the third army. May we never see a war like that again.
We live in a great big world with billions of people on the planet, at least half a million born every year.
How do we get a handle on these two words: honor and respect for parents by their children? Generations of our ancestors’ words echo in my mind of their basic instruction to the children of generations ago – to love one another, to respect your father and mother and honor them because they’ve lived a long life and deserve to be treated with respect and honor.
I watched a television program with Dr. Phil speaking to a mother who was in tears because her children disrespected her.
Respect and honor I believe works both ways from the parents to their children, and from children to their mom and their dad who raised them.
We live in an imperfect world where relationships are damaged, especially when there’s neglect and abuse verbally and physically toward the children and in many cases, innocent children.
When I was a boy growing up, I didn’t know my grandfather on my mother’s side personally. He had long passed on before I came into the world, but I am hundred percent sure that he would have personally spoken to me and given me words of wisdom if I want to live a good life.
I heard it from other elders practically every day – to love one another and to never retaliate when someone hurts you. In some instances we were even asked to pray for others, to love them with respect and honor. It’s never too late to do just that.
Many of our elders are gone. They moved on, their journey is complete here on earth. They left us valuable words of wisdom for us to live by.
Today at 74 years of age I am grateful for the elders who instructed us how to live a good life with total regard for others , even those who hurt us and to always pray for them. I wasn’t a perfect human being but those teachings of our elders always were in the forefront of my mind.
Although we struggle through life, we can be sure that our elders words to live by are practiced throughout our life.
We are looking for a better life for each other with what we know and what we’ve been taught by our elders. Now it’s our turn to instruct our youth the values of a good life.
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