“Don’t Be A Goose!”

“Son, don’t be a goose!”

My dad used to say that to me multiple times a week. He frequently said it when certain neighbors left the house after stopping in to glean some valuable advice. Because my dad specialized in the art of monologue, I wasn’t even sure I was supposed to respond. So I didn’t.

Finally, I stirred the courage to ask, “Dad what do you mean don’t be a goose? You say it to me all the time. You say it often after Vernon leaves. I’m not sure I should ask. But why? Why don’t be a goose?”

We lived on a farm so the phrase seemed to fit. I just didn’t know how it fit.

Each time he proclaimed, “Son don’t be a goose.” He was rather forceful and would shake his head as if to say, “Are you getting this?”

I wasn’t sure what I supposed to be getting.

So finally I asked. A little concerned that I had missed something very obvious.

“I wondered when you would ask!”

My dad had a way of setting things up. Then just wait for the time to execute. He understood a key in connecting in a teachable moment is responding to questions rather than telling all the time. Even when he set up the question.

“A goose remembers nothing from one day to the next. He starts out every day relearning what he learned the day before. Don’t be a goose!”

I don’t know if my dad really knew what a goose remembered from one day to the next. It didn’t matter. The lesson wasn’t about a goose. And the way he put it I would never forget.

I needed to know, and he wanted to make sure I understood that Vernon came around because he never learned. He was a goose. He never carried the experience of one day over to the next. I would not be a goose.

That was almost 50 years ago. The lesson was never forgotten.

A Beginner’s Guide to Not Being A Goose

Connect the dots. All things are connected. Each experience will at some point relate to the others. The principle of sufficient reason taken to its logical conclusion shows what you know now makes it possible for you to grasp things you don’t understand yet.

Ask yourself, “What did I learn today that I will use tomorrow.” No experience is wasted. The question implies a commitment to the experience. It says, “this has value even if I don’t see the value today it isn’t to be wasted”. My experiences. My life lessons all have value as they are needed.

Walk confidently in your understanding. Go through life expecting every experience to become the composite that makes you uniquely you. You’ll learn more. You’ll tackle bigger and bigger problems. You’ll face the world confident that whatever you encounter along the way will not crush you. You’ll have the experience you need to think through this. You won’t be a goose!