Little guy,
You are now 86 days from what your mom is calling your guess date. Whether you are born on the 22nd of October or not, I would rather you be ready to be out here than to come too soon because we are so excited. Yesterday we celebrated your Great Grandpa Hinckleys 89th Birthday with cake and Ice Cream at his house. When I was born we got a picture with My Great Grandpa Silas, My Grandpa Tharon, and My Dad Tharoll and I, it was one of the few that were taken with the 4 Hinckley men together. You are hardly the first Great Grandson but it is my hope, and my dads too that Grandpa will stay with us long enough to do be able to do the same thing for you.
You are now 86 days from what your mom is calling your guess date. Whether you are born on the 22nd of October or not, I would rather you be ready to be out here than to come too soon because we are so excited. Yesterday we celebrated your Great Grandpa Hinckleys 89th Birthday with cake and Ice Cream at his house. When I was born we got a picture with My Great Grandpa Silas, My Grandpa Tharon, and My Dad Tharoll and I, it was one of the few that were taken with the 4 Hinckley men together. You are hardly the first Great Grandson but it is my hope, and my dads too that Grandpa will stay with us long enough to do be able to do the same thing for you.
I have been writing much more for you these last weeks, but today I want to talk about 2 things that kind of go hand in hand. Speaking to what you know, and when you don't finding out as much as you can so if you need to you can speak to it.
I want to start out by telling you that I do not know everything, Far from it. I can't promise that if you listen to the advise I give you that you will live a wealthy, successful and happy life. I wish I could, but that is just not a promise I can, in good conscience make you. What I can tell you is to listen to things that people tell you and ask yourself does what they are telling me make reasonable sense, and if not why not. You may not always get the answers you are looking for, but sometimes you may be able to tell the reality from the made up stuff they are building into it.
An example of this would be if someone is telling you that they were late to work because they got a flat tire on the way in. They then go and explain that it must be the neighborhood kids who did something to it just so he would be late to work this morning of all mornings when he has the big meeting. From that I can read he got a flat tire, he does not like the neighborhood kids, or possibly does not trust them. Is it possible them messed with his tire so he got a flat on the road on the way to work? Maybe, but is it likely? No. There is a big difference between causation and coincidence. our minds are wired to look for coincidence, to find things that would make sense as to the cause of something. It is a survival thing from a long time ago. If Bob eats a banana and falls down dead, you may not want to eat the banana he did. Does that mean it caused is death? No, but it is a little better safe than sorry.
To that point, I suggest that you speak to things you know. That does not mean in class never raise you hand, but it does mean when you are in conversations with people if you do not know something to be true, don't speak to that point. Speculate if you need to, talk about similar things that you do know, but one way to be made a fool is to not know what you are talking about and to fight for it strongly. Lets say your friends are talking about a show they watched last night that you didn't get to see. It is far better to sit it out and observe some of what they are talking about then to make up things just to be in the conversation. "Remember when that guy got hit with a banana? that was hilarious!" is not likely to come across as something that is likely to have happened or clue you in to the conversation. It is easier to tell the truth about things then to make up stories that you then have to support with facts. Sometimes that means trying to change the topic of conversation to something you do know, but better that, then to be caught in a lie that you have to try to get out of. Tell the truth, and speak to what you know about.
There was a time a few years ago that I would try to jump into many online conversations. I saw that people were talking about something and I really wanted to be a part of it. The problem that I found was that if I did not have a good solid context for the conversation, I was seen as random and coming from no where. I may have had something to contribute, but because I was way out of context, people did not listen to me. These days I try to keep my nose out of things I have no understanding of. Sometimes that means asking questions to people who do know, sometimes it means watching things to see what I can learn about a topic, sometimes it means asking clarifying questions to understand what is being talked about.
In general I will avoid things about German Long sword technique. I am too new to it, I do not know it well, I do not speak the lingo. If someone is talking about something in general like Oblique strikes or something, I have no problem talking about how I think it works or how it should be performed but when it is something like "When Meyer says to do X what does it mean? " I avoid it. Not because I may not have an opinion, but because I do not have the foundation enough to speak to it. Let it go by, let others speak to it. It is not up to you to solve all of the worlds problems, Just to do what you can.
Speak to what you know, and let others speak to what they know, ask questions, learn more, maybe some day what you know will be what they do. But there is no reason to have to chime in to everything, just say what you know or can relate to, everything else will work itself out.
Love you kiddo
-Dad
