Lifter or Leaner . . . what are you?
My second baby girl was born to my wife and I on 23 Sept 2011. It was a wonderful occasion as I have moved towards another phase in my life. Having a second child was something that we both wanted, and was part of my life plan as well.
Even as my wife and I gazed at our little baby and watched her depend on her mummy in these early days on milk, I was reminded of this old poem, “Lifting and Leaning‘.
I know there will be a point in time, when both my girls grow up, and reduce their dependencies on us. So the question is . . . when will they really grow up and be dependable on their own? Will they be lifters or leaners?
It also struck me about how we should always add value in the lives of others, instead of always just depending on them.
In other words, the people in your social circle, must also be either adders or multipliers. Assets, not liabilities.
They don’t need to have proven track records. They just need to be dependable when called upon.
“There are two kinds of people on earth today,
Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.
Not the good and the bad, for ’tis well understood
The good are half bad and the bad are half good.
Not the happy and sad, for the swift-flying years
Brings each man his laughter and each man his tears.
Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man’s wealth
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.
Not the humble and proud, for in life’s busy span
He who puts on vain airs is not counted a man.
No! The two kinds of people on earth I mean
Are the people who lift and the people who lean.
Wherever you go you will find the world’s masses
Are ever divided in just two classes.
And, strangely enough, you will find, too, I ween,
There is only one lifter to twenty who lean.
In which class are you? Are you easing the load
Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?
Or are you a leaner who lets others bear
Your portion of worry and labor and care?”
– Ella Wheeler Wilcox
And I know the path that I intend to show my baby girls.
That lifters, they must be.
cheers,
Mark
chewmark 