Words of wisdom

There’s a tendency to build a mould and then expect the kid to go fit himself into it. But people have different abilities and difference tolerances.

My grandmother was the biggest influence on me in so far as my opinion of myself. When everybody said “Billy stutters and he’s never gonna grow”. My Grandmother would say “Billy’s cool. Maybe he’s got something that you guys don’t see”.

My Grandmother always let me know that it was okay to be me and that I may have something about me that may be a little bit different. That if I figured it out I could apply it in some way to be okay.

You know, I’m a bit of a fan of ‘all right’. You can’t get to ‘wonderful’ without passing through ‘all right’. And when you get to ‘all right’ you should look around and familiarise yourself with things because that maybe all you are capable of. And that’s all right.
We are all accidents of birth. We don’t get to chose how we look. We don’t chose how gifted we are, how tall or how strong. One day somebody says: “ You are. Now this is your name , look in the mirror that is who you are. This is your tow, this is your elbow and this is your Aunty Suzy”.

Some of the most frustrating lives are people who can’t come to grips with who they are. So you are either going to come to grips with who you are or you are going to be a little bit nuts or in a constant state of frustration. States of frustration are hard enough to avoid, without helping it in any way.

Bill Withers