The value of Ignorance

Grandpa and I were in the cellar putting up some bottles of wine he had made, wine that the whole county praised as being the best. Grandpa never took credit for himself but always passed the credit to grandma. He always said it was her tender care of the blackberry bushes that produced the sweetest of berries thus the best of wine. I never argued that because her berry pies always won the blue ribbon at the county fair.

Anyways, as we were doing this my thoughts went back to the sermon the pastor preached last Sunday on the evils of imbibing of alcohol. And I asked granda his thoughts of it since it was obvious that he did not agree with the pastor on this.

"Boy", he said, "I have great respect for the pastor. He knows the Good Book forward and backward. And there be a lot of truth in what he says. Many a good man has met his ruin by making drink his best friend. And every town or city has at least one person in it that has the bottle as his best friend.

And in the eyes of the pastor these men have replaced God in their soul with the bottle. And when you think about it in these terms he speaks truthfully. These unfotunates are depending upon the bottle to get them through the day instead of depending upon God. So, boy, I cannot say I am in total disagreement with the pastor.

But the bottle is not the only thing that has replaced God in the eyes of many. Some have replaced Him with government. Others have done so with money. There even those who have used science as a means to replace God. Yet, each of these when used properly and with the intent and purpose of their existance should never be a replacement of God.

One thing to remember, boy, God is as He is and nothing can replace Him. The fact that there are so many different beliefs in regards to Him only betrays our ignorance about Him not our knowledge of Him. It is from our ignorance that we know faith and hope are necessities for man's belief in the Almighty not our knowledge of Him.

In ignorance there is bliss. In knowledge we find wisdom. What greater wisdom is there, boy, then the wisdom that comes from the recognition of our own ignorance?"

Thinking on that question a bit, a grin came across my face as I finally answered; "I don't know, grandpa, I really don't know."

Grandpa grinned back at me and replied; "Niether do I, boy, neither do I. Tis a question my grandpappy asked me when I was your age and I still don't know. And I hope I never become so arrogant as to believe I do know."

Leadership

Twas after supper one night in February, the snow flurries were slowly building mountains of snow outside as the wind howled its protest for all to hear. Grandma was in her rockin chair putting the finishing touches on the quilt she had been spending the long wintry nights working on. Grandpa was in his old comfy chair that all knew only he was allowed to sit in reading the evening news paper. I was lying on the floor near the warmth of the glow of the fireplace reading one of my comic books when both grandma and I heard one of grandpa's familar grumblings.

"Has our educational system gotten so bad that there isn't anyone in government these days that has studied history or is it they just do not understand the consequences of going to war and losing it?" Then he went quiet as if he was waiting for something.

Both grandma and I looked at each other, winked, then smiling, she nodded her head to me as if to say, "it is your turn." I smiled back at her and without taking my eyes off of her I said; "ok grandpa, who rattled your shackles now?" Feeling proud of myself for doing my duty in this situation I was surprised by grandpa's next words. The harshness of the tone of his voice went through me like the dullest of knives through melting butter.

"Boy, it is not who but what. You do not attack people for their foolish ideas. You attack the ideas of fools. To attack the person is to acknowlege you have no counter arguement to their ideas and you end up being seen as the fool. It is far better to be silent thus thought a fool then to open your mouth and reveal yourself as one. Knowledge is ever plentiful but wisdom is always in the shortest of supply." With that said he went silent again.

After a few minutes of silence grandpa had this to say;

"boy, good leaders are hard to come by but followers are plenty. It is the nature of any society. A good leader does not change his mind unless he hears of a better plan to achieve the same goal. A follower may complain but unless he can come up with a better plan he remains a follower and never a leader. A leader knows that he can never be misled, he can only mislead. Tis the follower that can declare he was misled for he is not a leader of men. A leader must be confident in himself. A follower finds his confidence in others. And it is in the time of war, my boy, where the leaders separate themselves from the followers. For it is the leaders that lead a nation down the path of victory. For it is the leader who will not acknowlege defeat until he sees his troops defeated."

An Apology to all who has visited

This is an apology to all who have visited and was kind enough to comment. I have updated the blog now along with comments. They were very nice and hope that those who wrote will forgive this Griper for this omission. He admits he has no excuse other than ignorance.

By the way, Grandpa took me out behind the wood pile and tanned my butt good when he saw how rude I was to each and every one of you. I'll be standing up when at the dinner table for a couple of days now.