What The Indian Taught Me

I have a simple saying that goes like this... "There are 6.2 billion people on this planet and I can learn something new from every one of them."

Here is a true story about what I learned from a Miccosukee Indian named Roy.

I live on a lake in Miami Florida, and a couple of years ago I noticed that one of my neighbors had paid someone to build a Tiki Hut in his backyard near the lake.

The Tiki Hut was made of Cypress Wood and was very attractive. My wife and I decided that we wanted to get one and I asked my neighbor where he got his Tiki Hut. He replied, "the Miccosukee Indians built it for me." I asked him how to get in touch with the Indians who built it, and he game me the phone number of an Indian named Roy.

I called Roy and told him that I wanted a Tiki Hut like the one he had built for my neighbor. Roy said he would come out to my house and give me an estimate.

A few days later Roy arrived at my house to give me an estimate. I told him where I wanted it built and what size I wanted. Roy said the price was $1,900 dollars....I was impressed as I expected it to cost more.

I told Roy I would contact him when I was ready to proceed and he left. A few weeks later I called Roy and told him that I was ready to have him come out and build my Tiki Hut. I have worked with housing contractors many times in the past and I expected that Roy would require a 50% deposit to get started with the work. When I asked Roy about the deposit his reply was " I will come to your home and build the Tiki Hut,and when I am finished you can pay me."

I was shocked!

In all my years of dealing with contractors and sub-contractors I had never heard anybody say this. They always required a deposit and usually wanted cash. Roy told me he would be out in a week to build the Tiki Hut.

One week later Roy and his crew of 4 Indians arrived at my home to build my Tiki Hut. They had a trailer filled with palm fronds and beautiful Cypress Wood. For the next 8 hours they meticulously worked constructing the Tiki Hut. Some friends stopped by and we watched together in amazement as they built the Tiki Hut using techniques that had been passed down for generations.

When they were just about finished I noticed that Roy was sitting at the top of the Tiki Hut....he was looking off into the distance as if he was looking back to another time many years earlier. I took a photo of Roy as he rested on the top of my new Tiki Hut.

Before Roy had arrived that day I had gone to the bank to cash a check for $1,900 dollars. I placed 19 crisp $100 dollar bills in a plain white envelope. Now that the work was complete, I shook Roy's hand and thanked him for doing such a great job.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the envelope and handed it to Roy. Roy looked me in the eye and placed the envelope in his pocket...he never once looked to see what was inside the envelope, he said goodbye, got into his truck and drove away.

Think about this story, read it to your children, Roy's example is one to be followed for the rest of our lives. When Roy made a promise he kept it...he is a man of his word. We must make it a habit to always keep our word, no matter how small the promise.

Presidents Day – Let’s Not Forget to Honor the Big Three

ce was never meant to be at odds with congress or even juxtaposed with it. But Presidents Day, it seems, like other special holidays has gone the way of all flesh. Even as a boy I remember questioning how the Birth of a Savior could be overtaken by the notion of a fat little benevolent man who comes bearing gifts. How did the celebration of a risen Savior get replaced with a candy egg bearing bunny? How are the hopes of a new year brought in by ending the old one in a drunken stupor? These questions don’t need to be answered as much as pondered. The answers are largely understood, knowing how to back out of our clearly cuckoo behavior is not. Would George Washington be glad to know that we have found a way to honor his work in the founding of this country by making deals on an invention he could not have imagined in his own time? Perhaps he might be let down by the fact that Lincoln at least got a car named after him. But where is the new Dodge George Washington four wheel drive SUV? Lincoln was known for many things but not one of them could be remotely connected to the sales of automobiles. How is it that automobiles got connected to him? Hasn’t anyone noticed that a fleet of Lincoln Continentals cannot compare even marginally to the great character and legacy that Lincoln left to us all? Lincoln said “Intelligence, patriotism Christianity and a firm reliance are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.” Was he remiss or did he forget to add the part about a good deal on a car? It was said that Lincoln was more like a spirit than a man. He was the only president who not only was unafraid to use God in his speeches but he actually referred to Jesus Christ as well. He was well known for the many failures in his life. They all seemed to prepare him for the one great success which was even more than his presidency but the preservation of the union itself. Well known was Lincoln’s ability to defuse a hot situation and bring peace and harmony where there was discord. His more down home quality may have been the ability to split logs to make rail fences and he was very good at that it is said. One lesser known talent was banjo picking and singing old folk ditties. Even these proclivities can’t be thought of as anything resembling barking for the sale of a people moving buggy. In my grammar school days we were told the story of how Lincoln walked five miles back to the merchant who gave him too much change. He returned a penny. Judging from the pennies I see on supermarket floors and parking lots, I’d say people wouldn’t even bother to bend over to pick up a penny today. Some say this story may not be true at all. I say that if anyone might have done it that way it was probably Abraham Lincoln. Being a good student is scoffed at in today’s schools. Trying to be kind is thought of as weakness in the land of extreme sports and blood fights. And renowned men of old whose character and deeds are legendary are insulted by our indifference. Is the final insult to replace or supplant all repose to them in any fashion with the super sale of the latest stuff out of Detroit? By our indifference to the presidents both in practice and in the halls of academia perhaps we should heed the warnings of Lincoln who said “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”