What’s in Your Toolbox?
What do you give a young adult, graduating high school, who has just about everything he wants? What do you give him that he doesn’t even know he wants?
It was Christmas, and we were trying to figure out what to give our son. We eventually decided on a tool box, and we had a lot of fun filling it – hammers, fasteners, screw drivers and Phillips screw drivers in various sizes, nails, putty, screws, a level, a measuring tape . . . he like it, but he was a little underwhelmed.
Until he got to college. At the end of the first week, when he called us, we could hear the joyful confidence in his voice.
“Guess what!” he said. It wasn’t really a question, he was going to tell us.
“No-one else has a tool-box here! All the other kids need help putting their bunks together (there was some smart entrepreneur who was marketing loft-like bunk beds and room-customizing kits to all the incoming students, making, I am willing to bet, a fortune) and I’m the one with the tool box!”
We could hear the smile on his face.
And isn’t that life? The more tools you have in your toolbox, the better equipped you are to handle what life throws at you? Even the unexpected – if you have the right tools.
For me, those tools have been varied.
• Reading books has introduced me to new ways of thinking.
• Learning foreign languages gives me different perspectives.
• Living in foreign countries helps conquer ignorant ideas about people of other cultures.
• I can eat a wide variety of cuisines without fear
• I can swim, use a rifle, cook, and speak in public without my voice quavering
• I can laugh. Thanks be to God.
All these tools have been acquired, some, like patience and kindness, at great price.
So what are your tools? What has helped you deal with what life throws your way? What tools have you grown to deal with life’s challenges?
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Here There and Everywhere 
OK, this was so weird for me! I was actually in the Books tag area, looking for anything interesting that wasn’t Potted on Potter, and was reading this interesting blog without looking at the attribution. Then it seemed familiar. Then the avatar caught my eye – who dared use your avatar (and write so like you!)? Only then did I realize it was your new posting. What a hoot. Great blog. Life challenges and how we meet them, how we are prepared to meet them, and what we learn from them, keep us thinking and vital. Crisis, what crisis?
You found me by ACCIDENT???? Total hoot!
In terms of that crisis-denial thing – yeh, deal now and shiver months later. 😛
I need to think about this post and reply later 🙂
But rest assure books and reading are the number one items in my toolbox