I know I mentioned this somewhere recently, so forgive the old man rambling again thing.

When I was a kid, I had a job for a little while with TWRA, (Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency,) much of the job was about opening and closing gates to allow water in/out of wildlife areas, putting in crops on wildlife reserves, and generally doing things to help foster wildlife in general.

One of our jobs was to acquire stakes to make crappie beds with. They had a sawmill in Natchez Trace State Park, and we went there to cut logs down into stakes, which were then taken out in boats, and driven into shallow water as crappie beds.

At the sawmill, there was a grizzled old sawyer, who sized me up, and offered me the best advice I have ever recieved.

“Never stand up if you can sit down, and never sit down if you can lie down.”

I was 16 or 17 at the time, I thought it was cute, bordering on funny, but not exactly ha-ha funny. But the older I get, the truth of that wisdom, becomes clearer every day.

The second best wisdom I have recieved was “Never believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see.” Which is truer today than it ever was.

Daily writing prompt

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

View all responses