Though my grandmother departed a while ago, she was one of the wisest persons I’ve ever met, so I always have to pay homage to her. She was a visionary. She talked to me constantly when I was growing up. I didn’t understand why she was always talking to me about her life, about people in the community, about this country, the world, etc. and using all of those dang proverbs LOL, but I’m so grateful now that she did because nothing much has changed. I have avoided many problems, traps, pitfalls, etc. because I could see them coming, since she had already prepared me for them. There hasn’t been any problem I ever had that her wisdom didn’t give me an edge in resolving.
For ex. Here are some of her lessons summed up in her favorite sayings that I must have heard a million times!!
-Birds of a feather flock together taught me that if I was going to be successful or progressive I needed to surround myself with those types of people only.
-Don’t follow the crowd because the crowd is almost always wrong taught me to always think for myself.
-A fool and his money are soon parted taught me to save money.
-Such and such person doesn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of taught me to own things like a house, land, business.
-Get your education because it’s the only thing the white man can’t take from you made me determined to get an education, no matter what
-Don’t depend on ‘no’ man taught me not to depend on a man to take care of me.
-Your people (family) are all you’ve got taught me the value of investing in family.
-The cloaker is just as bad as the rogue taught me that if I stand by and watch people do bad things, then I’m just as bad as the person who did it.
-Watch what people do, not what they say taught me that talk is cheap.
-Your word is your bond taught me to be a person of my word.
-God helps those who help themselves taught me to get up off my rusty dusty and do for myself.
And many, many more.
In turn, I’ve talked a lot with my teenage and young adult nephews since they were toddlers about everything and used many of these same sayings and this has paid off in so many ways. They don’t get caught up in a lot of the hype out there and are not easily influenced. Yet they’ve been allowed to listen to any hip hop music, watch BET and all of the violent movies they wanted to see. Their parents and I made sure they had knowledge of the Creator and were morally grounded, so they know that stuff is pure glitter and hype with no value.
What have I done for them aside from talk? I have bought lots of life insurance and invested in things that they will get when I depart. I do all of these things because I believe that Black adults need to leave the next generation as much wisdom and money as possible, just like my grandmama did.