Roberts: Remain aware of your flaws

I have seen great men almost destroyed by one little imperfection. Like Bill Clinton. And think of our former sheriff, Billy Long. In all his years of law enforcement, no one recalls any of his weaknesses coming out. I suspect Mr. Long was aware of them but, if not, that explains how they quickly overwhelmed him. Suddenly coming into power will trigger psychological weaknesses. Very few men can handle power honestly and gracefully.

Our imperfections are like little time bombs we carry around with us all the time. They are not a serious threat unless we are unaware of them. Being aware of them neutralizes them because it keeps them under our watchful eye. Being unaware of them makes them more likely to go off.

I am glad I fixed the brakes on my car one time, although mechanical skills have never been my forte. The truth is my father kept reminding me and others of my lack of mechanical skills.

Dad could fix anything. In my entire life at home, I never saw a single handyman of any kind. If Dad didn't know how to fix it, he quickly learned.

He was a plumber, electrician, carpenter, mechanic and anything else he needed to be. While I greatly admired him for his skills, I inherited none of them. And I paid the price in his active disfavor.

So when the brakes went out on my Plymouth, I bought the Plymouth repair manual and learned how to install new brake shoes, a cylinder and all the other stuff that is part of the braking mechanism.

I skinned up both hands, but I finished the job. After I test-drove it, I came back to the house and washed up. Dad was sitting at the kitchen table working a crossword puzzle. I walked up and showed him my hands. I said, "Dad those are the hands of a guitar player. I knew I would skin them up to prove to you that I could work on cars if I needed to. Now I don't want you to ever make fun of me again about my klutziness as a car repairman. And by the way, I don't intend to ever fix anything else on any car."

He grinned and said, "Well, I didn't realize I was such a problem to you." Well, he was. Every father seems to want his son to be just like him, and every son seems to want to be as much like his father as possible. But until that moment I had not been fully aware of my imperfection and how good it was for me to put it in perspective. No longer would I be bothered much by it. I respected it but no longer feared it. Suddenly, I had become the master.

One of the best things it did was to demonstrate to my father that I no longer feared one of my imperfections. That I could live with it and so should he.

It's not easy to admit our imperfections but it should be because everyone has them. Neither should we make correcting them the total focus of our lives. If we succeed in life it will come from finding our success factors and riding them to the max.

Just be aware of your imperfections and especially those that possess the power to destroy you.

Email Dalton Roberts at DownhomeP@aol.com.

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