My dad’s family — his mother and father’s ancestors — were all a bunch of city roustabouts. Born in Dayton, Ohio. Living in small houses, lined up with all the other houses, just a couple miles from downtown. Saloon owners, teamsters, day laborers. Oh, the city folk.
My mom’s mother was born in Mercer County, Ohio. She was one of thirteen children, mostly girls. All farmers. German dirt farmers. And my mother’s father was born in Auglaize County, Ohio. He, one of twelve children. Again, farmers, German, dirt farmers. Big, flat, wide-open land.
Where I grew up was in the city too. That same old Dayton. One of seven children and I can guarantee we didn’t know the first thing about farming. My mother must have had some aversion to it, deeply embedded in her genetics somehow. She did not even care to grow a flower in any of our beds. The most we had were evergreen bushes. (Except in those times when my eldest brother planted a flower or two hundred.)
Anyway, there were occasions when my mom’s people would come down to Dayton, to the city, for a visit. We would all sit around the living room, on our best behavior, listening to their idle chat about not much of anything at all. But one of my mom’s cousins, named Claude, would sit back, arm behind his head as he shook that head back and forth, and always say, no matter the topic:
“It’s always sumpin.” (Translation: It is always something.)
At first, I noticed him saying it when they recounted some tale of whoa. Perhaps, a pump breaking, or a sick chicken. And at the end of the story, Claude would get the saddest look on his face, and mutter, “It’s always sumpin.”
But then, I noticed him using the adage in times with happier notes. Maybe mom would say that someone at church just bought a brand new car. Claude would think on that for a moment, and again, he would come to his grand conclusion. “It’s always sumpin.”
Maybe he ran the scenario through the car’s entire life. Perhaps he imagined the teenage son borrowing it for a date and backing into a light post. Or the brake pads wearing thin in a few years and needing to be replaced. Perhaps the rising cost of gas, or the fact that it was a black car and would be hot in the summer, or maybe the trunk was too small to hold all their suitcases on a vacation. But by the end of his reflection, he would come up with something.
I was thinking about this just this morning because it feels like 2020 is becoming the year of Claude. There was yet more bad news about our failing economy, the resurgence in COVID cases due to reopening, and the fact that American’s are not taking proper precautions, which will only make matters worse. And that Trump is negating the fact that racism is a problem in our country. At the end of the news blip, I found myself shaking my head, exclaiming out loud, “God, it seems like it is always something.”
Maybe Claude had a whole heap of foreshadowing going on in that head of his.
But the fact is, we continue to face extreme challenges. Yes, we all want to fall asleep, find this was a dream, and wake up knowing that everything is okay. But it isn’t. We are in the thick of things and will be for a long time.
Which brings me to another thought I had soon after. A quote, which I had to look up to be sure. It is by Publilius Syrus, and he said,
“Each day is the scholar of yesterday.”
Somehow, for me, it made things a little easier, reminding myself, that I’m supposed to be learning from all of this. I think we all are. I mean, that is kind of the point of our existence, to learn and grow.
This day might be a challenge, but it was built for me to learn. To discover something new, about myself, about the world. And, if all goes right, this day makes me better prepared for the next.
Another thought. I heard someone say that “Pain is Growth” — and the ever-familiar phrase — “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” And while these two things may very well be true, I have never been fond of either phrase. They seem to imply that the only way to grow or to be stronger, is to suffer.
I disagree. Learning can happen at the most wonderful moments in life. Growth can take place in the presence of beauty and love. It can be the picture painted by a five-year-old, or the start of a plant, just popping its little head through the dirt. It can come in the form of a chocolate chip cookie. Our path can take us anywhere, and we learn as we go along.
And still, especially then, we can humbly acknowledge, “It’s always sumpin.”
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“Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.”
— Anthony J. D’Angelo
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“Change is the end result of all true learning.”
— Leo Buscaglia
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“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”
— B.B. King
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