The soft,
mellow music of Nat King Cole’s velvet voice drifted softly across the front porch where I
was sitting in my rocking chair, enjoying the view of the sun setting behind
the Blue Ridge mountains in a lovely late
afternoon sky.
"The
falling leaves drift by the window The autumn leaves of red and gold ….”
And on it
played to its beautiful conclusion… “When
autumn leaves start to fall”
The
familiar words turned my thought back many years, to a time when the autumn
leaves were falling, cascading down and covering the lawn on Jefferson Avenue in Chillicothe, Ohio, where a
young boy had decided to help his Dad, a hard working father who was exhausted
after an extra long night shift at the paper mill.
What had
started out as a “Dad’s little helper” task was now turning into major disaster. As a six year old, I had absolutely no idea
that even well intentioned little “helpful tasks” could cause big problems.
It all
started when I felt a little too big for my britches and decided to rake the
fall leaves from the front yard. I
was so proud of myself for having raked the entire front yard, pulling the
leaves with the big leaf rake out into the gutter. Now that
I had a huge pile about half the width of our lawn stacked high in the gutter and
reaching out into the street, my last little task was to get rid of them.
Now it
didn’t seem like a good idea to let my Dad know what I had planned, I wanted to
surprise him with a “Well Dad, I took care of the leaves!” I could almost hear
the inevitable praises… “What a good boy”.
I slipped into the house and got a box of
matches and went back out. It took a few
tries as I had never lit a match before, finally, success! I had a match
burning and I threw it into those dry leaves.
I was on my way!!
The fire
actually grew faster than I had thought it would and the the flames started
rising producing thick clouds of dirty white smoke. In panic mode, I started raking vigorously
covering up the flames, need more leaves,
raking faster and faster. “Surely if I get enough leaves on the fire it will be
hidden. Gotta cover it up quick!”
The fire
just grew bigger and bigger, flames reaching higher and higher, smoke covering
the neighborhood. I was really
frightened and wanted to keep my parents from seeing the fire. But….
Above the
sound of my racing heart I heard a shout behind me. Dad was no longer sleeping and was standing
with Mom on the porch aghast at the site and fearing, I’m sure, that the whole
neighborhood would go up in flames. Dad rushed out with the hose and together
we fought the fire until Dad told me to get lost, and get out of his way. As I recall he wasn’t smiling his usual happy
smile.
After the
fire was out and things calmed down especially my Dad, we had what Dad called a
little instructional talk. What he
lacked in tact, he made up for in straightforwardness!! I guess the most important thing I took away from the lesson was:
If you
find yourself in a hole… STOP DIGGING!
In what
became “The Lesson of the Leaves” to me, I learned at a young age the consequences
of a “cover-up” and the necessity for honesty and openness. Tragically
today we so often see the disastrous results of attempts to cover up mistakes,
errors and omissions, dishonesty, situations that would bring dishonor, embarrassment,
even jail time by individuals, businesses and governments.
How hard
the lesson we all must learn that a problem approached with humility and
honesty when there is wrong doing, hastens
a solution and makes things so much easier on everyone. Even
in very insignificant dealings, complete honesty and openness are so healthy.
It is
fascinating to watch criminal defense attorneys being interviewed on TV,
fiercely defending their clients, claiming their innocence, maintaining that their client will
be vindicated, notwithstanding that the defendant’s criminal act may have been captured
on security cameras, in front of ten witnesses, leaving clear fingerprints and maybe
had already confessed to the police!! What a disservice to truth and honesty when
people can blatantly tell something so obviously false.
I
recently saw a sign in front of a local church that said, “Prepare your tax
returns as though someone was looking over your shoulder.” I
wanted to jump out of the car and change that sign to read: “Always do everything in the most honest and
truthful manner and you won’t need anyone looking over your shoulder!! A clean conscience is a wonderful feeling!!” And I have earned the right to do that
through painful experience, “Right Dad?”!!!
The
weight of guilt is heavy. For those who are humble enough to learn from others,
especially the wisdom of the ages captured in what I call my Operator’s Manual,
the Holy Bible, we can see examples of the effects of deceit, dishonesty and
covering up or hiding unacceptable behavior.
While there are many examples, one of my favorites can be found in the
record of Jacob.
Jacob and
Esau were twins, the sons of Isaac and Rebekah.
When the time came for Isaac to bestow his blessing on his sons, Jacob and his
mother contrived to deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob in Esau’s place, thereby giving Jacob the inheritance that was due his brother, as first born. . When
Esau found that his blessing had been given to Jacob, he threatened to kill his
brother, and Jacob was forced to leave home to go to another country to avoid
Esau’s wrath.
When he finally decided to come home he was
very frightened and in a sacred moment, when he turned his whole life over to
God and asked forgiveness, he was relieved of the guilt. As he approached his
brother Esau, who was coming to meet him, they rejoiced in each other and were
at peace. Poor Jacob must have been fearful and guilt ridden all these years because
he had tried to hide his sin.
Religious
pioneer Mary Baker Eddy counsels in her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty
is human weakness, which forfeits divine help.
You uncover sin, not in order to
injure, but in order to bless the corporeal man; and a right motive has its
reward." Proverbs has it: “He that covereth his sins
shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy."
By opening the window shades and letting in
the sunlight of truth we can put out the fire of guilt and enjoy a life of
peace, honesty, purity, guiltless living.
As leaf
raking time approaches, I am remembering the Lesson of the Leaves!! And as the sun sets over the mountains and
the music changes to Nat Cole singing “How High the Moon”, it’s time to go
inside….
