5 years ago, I took my family on a trip to the Grand Canyon! My four children still talk about this trip to the southwest and the memories we made. When my children were young, we started planning a family vacation before my oldest got to the point where he was in college, or working, or too busy with his own life that he couldn’t be a part of our trip. These family vacations were great experiences that made memories to last a lifetime.
When I was telling people about our plans to see the Grand Canyon, someone said, “what’s the big deal about seeing a hole in the ground?” And they were serious. For a minute I thought maybe they were right. But now that I’ve been there and seen it myself, they were dead wrong. I’m pretty sure that person has never been there before. It truly was a majestic site that is hard to describe. I could try to tell you all about it, or show you pictures, but if you weren’t there, it just won’t mean as much. Pictures don’t do it justice. If you really want to know what it’s like, then you have to see it for yourself.
Most of life is like this I suppose. While we may share some common experiences, ultimately, we are each leading a unique life that is only experienced by us. No one else has ever lived like you.
This makes me think of the movie “Good Will Hunting” from the 1990’s which featured Matt Damon and Robin Williams. Matt Damon plays the role of a young genius who seems to know everything about everything. There is one famous scene from that movie that I’ve never forgotten. As they are sitting on a park bench one day, Robin Williams challenges Matt Damon by saying, “I bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel.” For me that moment and movie line taught me an important lifelong lesson. I learned that we shouldn’t make assumptions about other people, because we don’t know what they have experienced in life. And you can’t always pretend to know something if you’ve only read about it in book. Experience matters and we shouldn’t pretend to know what others have been through. If we really want to learn about someone, we should allow them to tell their story, in their own words.
I’ve always liked the quote, “believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” I think we should also add, “and believe nothing on the internet”. I think that’s good advice. I’m glad I followed this advice and that we went to see that “big hole in the ground” for myself. It was the most beautiful hole in the ground I’ve ever seen.
“Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.”
- Benjamin Franklin
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