rebellion. it conjures up thoughts of teenage angst, anarchists in black masks, rock musicians, or, if you’re a geek, luke skywalker and princess leia. whatever image is called forth chances are it’s one of youth.
what happens to rebels as they age? maybe this sums it up…
life conspires to beat, or buy the rebel out of you.
the quote was a tweet by @bogusky which he further discussed in a blog post. i happened to find it through this blog post by @morganb.
the gist is that as life happens it either chips away a rebel’s resolve to go against the grain or it fattens them up with wealth. either way, passion dies and the cause suffers.
i encourage you to take 5 minutes and read each of those blog posts.
what I want to do in this post is tell a story of a rebel who was quite the character, stayed true to himself and made sure he passed the torch to future generations…
“go shit in a hat”
once in the classroom the coats were stored inside the cubby holes at the back of the room. when recess rolled around, the teacher instructed all the kids to put their coats on before they could head outside and play.
Robbie tried to pass through the door without his coat.
the teacher stopped him. “Robbie, go get your coat.”
“teacher, I don’t have one.”
“now, robbie, I know you brought one.”
Robbie shook his head. “no teacher, I didn’t bring a coat.”
the teacher walked over to Robbie’s cubby hole and retrieved the coat. Robbie got in trouble for lying to the teacher and his mom got a phone call from the school about Robbie’s behavior.
the story was recounted to my grandfather who, after hearing about the drama, turned to Robbie and said, “next time your teacher hassles you, tell her to go shit in a hat.”
yeah, that was my grandfather. he got old and eventually passed away but his fire never went out.
today, give props to the old rebels in your life. feel free to share your story below…
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Everything changes in time. The more we learn from life, the lesser our unfounded defiance becomes.
ahh, yes. the whole “wisdom with age” bit. i’m with ya. however, many folks tend to justify the abandonment of their convictions by “making the wiser choice” which is actually them just succumbing to fear. that’s the point of the articles i linked to. my grandfather’s story, not so much (that one was just for fun)