Thanks, Mom & Dad

In the first book of Meditations, Marcus Aurelius expresses gratitude to all his mentors, and what he learned from each.

Something that's been on my mind recently is what I learned from my mom and dad. Some of their teaching was quite nuanced.

I'm thankful to my mom for having taught me not to engage in any kind of regional negativity with people from other parts of my home country. It would hurt their feelings, especially where regional rivalry descends from historical conflicts that are beyond anyone's control, as they are in the past. As an adult, upon meeting people from other parts of the country, this lesson allowed me to pour positivity into them. That made them smile. 

I'm thankful to my dad for having taught me not to pick flowers. He said I could just leave them where they were. If I wanted to enjoy them again, I could just come back to the same spot the next day. That way, my enjoyment of them wouldn't be the cause of their death. I thought he was positively insane at first. Everyone picked flowers. Later, I came to understand. When I was a teen-ager, a patch of wildflowers appeared in our lawn. Both my dad and I were the lawn mowers, and between us we had an unspoken agreement that we wouldn't mow over the flowers. That patch of buttercups reappeared year after year, for them to live and for us to enjoy.

Thank you mom and dad! I love you! I will try to be a faithful, dutiful, and helpful child to you in your old age!