Slip Streaming

Often times when I’m driving, I’ll slip into a slipstream right behind a transport trailer. And as many of you know, it saves money – it saves energy. And when I say saves, I mean I pay less to go the distance.
I’m often reminded that I come from a very good stock. My mother and father are, I believe, the best parents anyone could have been blessed with, and many times in conversations and meetings people hear me say “My father always said…”. And I’ll bring up a few of his sayings like “Son of a bear!” or “Man oh shevitz!”, and it’s more than his colloquial terms… it’s his wisdom. His wisdom is ageless. It’s as many of us know with parents, mentors and teachers. It’s a combination of all that they have shared or all that they have passed on through deed and act that allows us to discern a little bit differently… intelligently, to assess more effectively, and to decide more resolutely.
We often times forget that it is all those who come before us, that paved the way, that provide a slipstream for us… so that we can move more quickly and efficiently than those who don’t pay homage, who don’t pay respect, to those who came before them.
There are many… we know not names and we know not faces of those in many sciences, many different fields… who have paved ways that allow us today to live the life we do with the freedoms and conveniences we enjoy… the gifts of technology and lifestyle that lifetimes of generations before us never ever dreamed of. WE OWE THEM!
So perhaps in conversations in the next little while, you might want to give CREDIT by NAME to those who have in fact came before. Those who did in fact, plant seeds… who infused you with something more than who you were about to be, by giving you their observation, or articulating in a different way, that which you have never felt or seen or experienced before. And by their sharing, they allowed you to slip into a pathway that was a little less challenging, with a little less wind in your face.
Good planting! Good harvesting! Good day!