The Ultimate Journey, page 4
I remembered when the freeway extension had gone in. It had made our neighborhood much more accessible to the city and had increased our property value, but I never knew what my friend had done.
I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Jason and Alexia both staring at me. I just smiled, shrugged, and said, “I guess it’s good to have friends.”
Jason spoke up. “Here is his final entry in the Friends section.”
Tough day today. Feeling sick and weak. The only bright spot was when Ted stopped by. He said he had told the doctors he wanted them to take out the kidney and give it back to me, because it never worked right anyway, and he was hoping for a black model. We laughed and shared a lot of old memories.
It’s good to know he will be there to take care of Jason and everything in the future when I’m gone.
Jason cleared his throat and spoke emotionally. “I guess true friendship isn’t just for a lifetime, but it goes on forever.”
I thought about the wonderful home that my family still enjoys to this day, a mile away from the freeway extension, and I thought about an old man laying a wreath on the memorial in Pearl Harbor.
A journey should never be judged by the destination or mode of transportation.
It should be judged by the friends
who accompany us on the trip.
Six
The Journey of Learning
I checked the mileage remaining in our trip and confirmed our route on my road map. The limousine is equipped with a state-of-the-art Global Positioning Device, but I have never trusted it entirely, and map reading is a skill my father taught me years ago. I’m afraid he would be distraught if he were alive today to see a whole generation of young people that can’t find their way to the bathroom without some kind of computerized device.
My quick calculations told me that we would arrive at the beach house while it was still daylight. I thought it would be good to get the newlyweds settled and comfortable with their surroundings before dark.
Red Stevens’ diary seemed like a magnet that kept drawing our attention to it. With the innermost thoughts and feelings of Red Stevens on every page in that leather-bound volume, it was hard to think of anything else.
Jason turned a page and read the heading on the next section of the diary that Mr. Stevens had prepared for him.
Jason read:
The Gift of Learning
I was eager to hear what Mr. Stevens had prepared to reveal to his grandson about learning.
Through my association for many years with Red Stevens, I met many successful and powerful men and women. It seemed to me that one of the things they all had in common is an intense curiosity to learn.
I remembered the first day I came to work for Red Stevens. He gave me three books and said, “This probably isn’t everything you’ll need to know, but it will get you started.”
Two of the books were about being a chauffeur and driving a limousine. The third book he gave me was the operator’s manual for the limousine.
The next week, when I was driving Mr. Stevens on a lengthy trip from town out to his ranch, he began talking about various chapters in the chauffeur’s book as well as several things that surprised him about the wiring diagrams for the limousine that were pictured in the operator’s manual.
I was shocked that he had read the books he had given me and relieved that I had read them as well. He talked about the books as if he had expected me to read them. This was because he had expected me to read them.
Jason inserted the DVD that his grandfather had made for him into the player. Mr. Stevens appeared on the screen on my dashboard, and I knew he was displayed on the larger flat screens in the back of the vehicle as well. He spoke about learning with great enthusiasm.
“As you know, I never had the benefit of a formal education, and I realize that you have some kind of degree from that high-toned college we sent you to that is little more than a playground for the idle rich.
“Now, before you get your feelings all hurt, I want you to realize that I respect universities as well as any type of formal education. It just wasn’t a part of my life. What was a part of my life was a constant curiosity and desire to learn everything I could about the people and world around me. I wasn’t able to go to school very long after I learned to read, but the ability to read, think, and observe made me a relatively well-educated man.
“But learning is a process. You can’t simply sit in a classroom and someday walk offstage with a sheepskin and call yourself educated. I believe the reason a graduation ceremony is called a commencement is because the process of learning begins—or commences—at that point. The schooling that went before simply provided the tools and the framework for the real lessons to come.
“In the final analysis, Jason, life—when lived on your own terms—is the ultimate teacher. My wealth and success have robbed you of that, and this is my best effort to repair the damage.”
I thought back and remembered that shortly after Mr. Stevens’ funeral, Mr. Hamilton presented The Ultimate Gift and the twelve life lessons to Jason. The Gift of Learning involved Jason traveling to a remote village in South America to work in a library that had been funded by his father and grandfather.
Jason learned many things about his family and the world. He survived being kidnapped by dangerous members of a drug cartel but escaped with a very special friend of his grandfather.
Jason read one of the handwritten entries from the diary:
June 4th, 1931.
School is out today for summer vacation. Granddad is going to come by and take me to get a surprise. I hope it’s ice cream.
Jason continued:
June 5th, 1931.
Granddad took me to the library and got me a library card of my own. I wanted ice cream, but I read some of the books last night, and I think this will be a good summer.
Jason exclaimed, “Wow, look at this!”
“It’s hard to believe,” Alexia chimed in.
I glanced back in the mirror to be certain everything was all right. They both looked up at me, and Jason held up a worn and yellowed card and simply explained, “His library card.”
Alexia took the diary, carefully turned a worn page, and read:
August 14th, 1942.
Another day at sea. We are patrolling for enemy submarines, which creates a lot of boredom punctuated with brief moments of terror. I think I would go insane except that one of the older guys showed me that we have a pretty extensive library onboard. I can lose myself here for hours, and it feels like being back home in our little town library, except back there I’ve read all the books, and these new books here should keep me busy for a while.
Alexia turned another page, read silently for a moment, then chuckled and said, “Listen to this.”
September 12th, 1948.
I’m checking out every book in the library and reading everything I can find about new techniques in the oil business. It’s funny. Whenever I get a book from the librarian, they stamp it and write my name on the slip inside. I always look to see who has read the book before me. I’ve yet to read a book that Gus Caldwell hasn’t already checked out.
We all laughed, but Alexia continued. “No, wait. There’s more.”
September 21st, 1948.
I stopped in to the library on my way back out to the oil fields. The librarian was just putting some brand-new books in the catalog. I found a great title about new ways to study geology for oil and gas producers. When the librarian wrote my name on the sheet, I was pleased to see that I was the first one to check it out, but when I turned the page, it had been stamped: “This book donated by Gus Caldwell.” Under it, he had written, “Red, read chapter 4.”
We all laughed heartily, and it felt almost like Red and Gus were there with us.
Alexia turned another page and exclaimed, “Oh, what’s this?”
She handed Jason an envelope that had been tucked between the pages.
Jason spoke solemnly. “It’s in a United States Navy envelope.”
Jason opened the envelope and slowly unfolded an old and yellowed page. He read, “Dear Red, if you’re reading this, I am gone. Don’t worry for me as I am where I wanted to be, doing what I wanted to do. Please check on my folks and do me one favor. My mother loves poetry, but she never learned how to read, herself, and it always embarrassed her. From time to time, it would mean a lot to me to know that you would go and check on her and read a couple of poems. You always had a feel for that sort of thing. More than me. I liked some of the poems you wrote better than the ones in the books.
“Thank you for doing this for me and for being the best friend anyone ever had. Billy.”
Alexia wiped away a tear and spoke. “Jason, I never knew your grandfather wrote poetry, did you?”
Jason seemed bewildered and replied, “No, that’s news to me.”
I smiled contentedly, remembering some of the long road trips when Mr. Stevens would read poems aloud from a book or even occasionally share one of his own.
Jason selected another page of the diary and read aloud:
March 9th, 1982.
Buried Billy’s mom today. I was glad I was there, because not many people came. The minister said I could say a few words, so I read one of her favorite poems and placed it in the casket before they closed the lid. I hope, somehow, she can share the poem with Billy today.
Jason sounded startled. “He wrote the poem here on the page. Do you think I should read it?”
I spoke up. “Sir, if I may. Not only do I think you should read it, but, knowing your grandfather, I can say he would expect you to read it and read it well.”
Jason cleared his throat and began. “It’s entitled ‘Cornerstones.’”
If I am to dream, let me dream magnificently.
Let me dream grand and lofty thoughts and ideals
That are worthy of me and my best efforts.
If I am to strive, let me strive mightily.
Let me spend myself and my very being
In a quest for that magnificent dream.
And, if I am to stumble, let me stumble but persevere.
Let me learn, grow, and expand myself to join the battle renewed—
Another day and another day and another day.
If I am to win, as I must, let me do so with honor, humility, and gratitude
For those people and things that have made winning possible
And so very sweet.
For each of us has been given life as an empty plot of ground
With four cornerstones.
These four cornerstones are
The ability to dream,
The ability to strive,
The ability to stumble but persevere,
And the ability to win.
The common man sees his plot of ground as little more
Than a place to sit and ponder the things that will never be.
But the uncommon man sees his plot of ground as a castle,
A cathedral,
A place of learning and healing.
For the uncommon man understands that in these four cornerstones
The Almighty has given us anything—and everything.
Alexia spoke energetically. “That is incredible. Does it say who wrote that?”
Jason was overwhelmed with emotion as he said, “It says, ‘Written by Howard Red Stevens.’”
I remembered as if it had been the day before and not twenty years in the past when I first had heard that poem read aloud to me by the poet himself.
Jason turned to the final page his grandfather had compiled for him about learning and read:
I have learned so many things over the years but sit here now, at the end of my life, wanting to know more new things than ever before. I hope that when Jason’s done learning everything from me and about me, he will find his own hunger to know what is unknown and see beyond the curtain.
As a hush fell over the limousine, I was certain that Red Stevens’ wish for his grandson had been fulfilled.
Learning is a journey that never ends.
Each discovery reveals another mystery waiting to be understood.
Seven
The Journey of Problems
Jason and Alexia talked excitedly and reread Red Stevens’ poem. They were both stunned to learn of this new aspect in the multifaceted personality of Red Stevens that they had never known.
Jason turned to the next section of his grandfather’s diary pages that Red Stevens had lovingly and thoughtfully selected for him.
Jason sighed deeply and said, “The next section is about problems. I never totally understood this one. Usually, I feel like problems are problems, and there’s nothing good about them. Maybe later you learn something, but the problem itself is not good.”
Alexia replied thoughtfully, “The things in my life that have brought me the greatest problems have also brought me the greatest joy.”
I immediately thought of Emily and everything she had brought into the lives of everyone who had known her. Although she only lived a decade, she impacted more people in deeper ways than anyone I could think of. She was an amazing little girl who was full of life despite the fact she never really knew her father, and she and her mother faced many financial hardships.
Then Emily was diagnosed with leukemia shortly before Jason came into her and her mother’s lives. Emily became part matchmaker, part strategist, and part tactician as she orchestrated people and events to bring Jason and Alexia together. I knew she would have been pleased but not surprised had she been at their wedding ceremony. Somehow, amidst all the butterflies and memories of her, I felt like she was there.
Jason reached for a DVD case and said, “Well, let’s hear what he’s got to say. Maybe it will make more sense this time.”
A few moments later, Mr. Stevens began to speak.
“Jason, life is full of many contradictions. In fact, the longer you live, the more the reality of life will seem like one great paradox. But if you live long enough and search hard enough, you will find a miraculous order to the confusion.
“All the lessons I am trying to teach you as a part of The Ultimate Gift I am leaving you through my will are generally learned as people go through their lives facing struggles and problems. Any challenge that does not defeat us ultimately strengthens us.
“One of the great errors in my life was sheltering so many people—including you—from life’s problems. Out of a misguided sense of concern for your well-being, I actually took away your ability to handle life’s problems by removing them from your environment.
“Unfortunately, human beings cannot live in a vacuum forever. A bird must struggle in order to emerge from the eggshell. A well-meaning person might crack open the egg, releasing the baby bird. This person might walk away feeling as though he has done the bird a wonderful service when, in fact, he has left the bird in a weakened condition and unable to deal with its environment. Instead of helping the bird, the person has, in fact, destroyed it. It is only a matter of time until something in the bird’s environment attacks it, and the bird has no ability to deal with what otherwise would be a manageable problem.
“If we are not allowed to deal with small problems, we will be destroyed by slightly larger ones. When we come to understand this fact, we live our lives not avoiding problems, but welcoming them as challenges that will strengthen us so that we can be victorious in the future.”
As Jason turned off the video, he said, “All of that sounds good and may even feel good after you have found the solution to the problem; but at the time you’re suffering through it, a problem is just a problem.”
Alexia took the diary from Jason, opened it to the beginning of the section on problems, and read one of the entries:
November 17th, 1933.
Nothing but soup for dinner again tonight. We sat around the radio and listened to another of Mr. Roosevelt’s fireside chats. He said that our nation needs to come together and support one another during this Depression. It’s not easy when we can’t even support ourselves.
Jason chuckled and said, “See? I don’t see any benefit to that problem, and not much was learned from it other than depressions are bad—especially when you don’t have enough food to feed your family.”
Alexia turned the page and continued reading:
November 18th, 1933.
Mother told us this evening that we wouldn’t have a Thanksgiving dinner since all we had was some vegetables from our garden. Doesn’t seem like there’s much to be thankful for.
Jason interjected, “Not much there. I don’t know why he put it in the book for us to read. It doesn’t seem like there’s much that’s special about these entries in the diary.”
Alexia scolded him playfully. “Well, maybe if you would just show a little patience, it would make sense to you.”
The couple laughed. Alexia turned the page and read:
November 19th, 1933.
I told Billy that we weren’t going to have Thanksgiving this year, and he said their family really wasn’t going to have a Thanksgiving dinner either because they had a turkey but no vegetables left and couldn’t even come up with the ingredients for bread or pie. We told a couple of other friends, and everything came together.
Jason interrupted with a question. “What came together?”
“Patience,” Alexia reminded him and continued:
November 30th, 1933.
A great Thanksgiving dinner today. The best ever. Everyone in the community came and brought what they had. We met many new neighbors and had a lot of fun. It all happened because I told Billy we weren’t going to have a Thanksgiving dinner.
Alexia laughed aloud and continued, “See? I told you so. The problem had a solution that turned out better than it would have been before.”
