Advice To The Young Man.
My grandfather pulled me aside one day, I think I was just about five or six years old. My favorite cow had just been slaughtered for the annual Yam Festival. I had heard the cow cry, all night, and I had observed the cow’s tears, with pain, literally drain down her cheeks.
I couldn’t take it.
My grandfather pulled me aside and said to me: Son, now you know you shouldn’t bond with the farm animals! If you love animals, don’t farm them. If you don’t farm anything, because you love everything, you will die, just like that cow!
My grandfather took off the cloth he had tied around his shoulders and he wiped away my tears, and then he slapped me lightly on the chin, perhaps to grab my attention for something important he was about to say. With his fingers, he propped up my chin and he said to me quietly:
“Disappointment is good, but don’t go looking for disappointment.”
Several years later, I would meet the prettiest girl I had ever seen. I shot my shot. That day I also learned that although I thought I was a man, there were actual men! Some men are more man, you know! And so I also learned my lesson:
Disappointment is good, but I don’t go looking for disappointment.
