I Plant a Seed

The old man slowly got onto his knees and began digging a small hole with an antique-looking hand shovel. His grandson, sitting cross-legged on the ground nearby, asked
"What are you doing Grandpa? Can I help?"

"Oh, I'm just digging a hole. But if you want to help me, you can sit right there and listen to why I'm digging it. Okay?"

The small boy nodded his head and waited patiently for his grandfather to start talking again.

"When I was about your age, I was so excited about all the things I would do when I got bigger. I wanted to be a fireman. I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to do things that would make my parents proud of me. I wanted to do things that mattered and would help people. I had so much energy and love and hope and I swore I would do all of those things once I was big enough and knew enough. But I was just a small boy so all I could do was wait to be bigger. Understand?"

The boy nodded. "Yes, Grandpa."

"By the time I was a young man, I had changed and what I wanted to do had changed. I had a lot of energy and passion. I still wanted to matter and to do things that mattered - to change the world, but now I also really wanted money so I could buy lots of things and impress the girls. And because I wasn't very good at school, I decided to stop my education and get a job instead. I worked hard, I earned enough money to move out from my parents' house, but I didn't really do anything that mattered. Too busy. Too hungry for things. Too focused on myself. You see?"

The boy nodded again. "Sort of."

"Then a time came when I met your grandmother. We fell in love and got married. Now I felt like my life had really started. I had to work two jobs those days, just to earn enough money to buy a house - this house. We made plans for our life together. We were so full of hope and excitement about the future. We decided to have children and then your mom and your aunt were born one after the other. I remember talking to grandma all the time about the wonderful things we would do together. Things that would matter. We were going to take a year off work and help people in Africa. We were going to start a school together. We were going to give our kids all the education they would need to become doctors or teachers or something else that would really matter. But all that had to wait for the kids to get bigger. And we didn't really have the time for any of that anyways. Life gets so busy when you have kids and barely enough money and by the time we were done with work and the kids each day, we'd only have enough energy left to fall into bed and go to sleep exhausted. You with me?"

"Yes, Grandpa."

"Everything sped up then, sort of. The kids grew. I got lucky and opened my own store successfully. Money stopped being a problem. I started to matter to the people who worked for me. Despite what was going wrong in the world, everything was going right for me and grandma and the kids. We were happy and felt so powerful. Our kids had everything they wanted. We were busier than ever, though. We got caught up in winning on everything. More money than the neighbours. More stuff. And that meant less time to help other people. Less time to make the world a better place. Right at the point in our lives when we really could have used our money and our power and our strength to do something that mattered,  we were focused on stuff that didn't matter. Know what I mean?"

"Sure, Grandpa."

"Then suddenly I woke up one day and I was old. The kids moved out and started families of their own. I sold the store so I could retire. I started to feel tired all the time. Believe it or not, I was smarter than ever. They call that wisdom. And I had more time than any other point in my life since I was a kid. But at some point you lose the drive to fix things. The things you see around you that need fixing are clear as day and really bother you, but now it's someone else's job to take care of what matters. Nobody takes old people seriously. And even if that weren't true, it's really hard to get out of bed each morning, let alone repair what's wrong with the world. You know?"

"Not really, Grandpa. I mean...I still don't really get why you're digging this hole and telling me all this stuff."

"Patience, boy, I'm getting to that now... You see, I've finally got time on my hands to do important things. I see what needs to be done because I'm old and wise. I understand at last what really matters. But I no longer have the energy, the passion, the influence or the strength to do just about anything myself. So here I am using the little bit of power that is left to me to plant a seed. A seed that I can only hope will one day grow into a great big tree that will give comfort and nourishment and shelter and inspiration to someone who understands what matters early enough in life to do what has to be done."

"Can I help?"

"Of course. That's why I asked your mom to bring you here."