Civic Imagination

Inner peace

The story is about my father and sister, it shows what are truly the most important things in life and how a fathers love can be stronger than any adversity. The story came from my own summer home, and I have told it at all special gathering in honor of my father. the thing I remember most was how shocked I was by my fathers reaction, and how completely unexpected it was. It is inspiring because it shows what inner peace is all about.

I was there when the story happened, and have never forgotten it since. It happened about 10 years ago when my sister was still 16. We were in our summer home with my family, mother, father, brother and sister, i am the youngest of the family and my sister was 16 back then. She was always nagging my parents to let her drive or at least park the car in the garage on her own. That summer day, my father had his car washed and the parking ground has a steep slope to get to the underground parking, and was therefore wet so my father parked his car on his own to my sisters disappointment. She didn't accept not driving the car that day that she sneaked inside a took the car keys without telling anyone and proceeded to try to take the car out of the garage and re-park it on her own in an attempt to prove that she could do it. Surely enough half way through going backwards on the steep wet slope, the car slipped and crashed into the wall. I being the smallest ran the first outside after the loud crashing noise coming from our own basement, and held my breath when i saw my dads new car crashed into our house. At this moment i saw my dad running through the garden towards us, and imagined the huge scolding my sister was about to receive. My father was never a violent nor loud person, he is know to be calm and peaceful to a fault, however with the image of his new car crashed into the wall i never expected what his reaction could be. And in my surprise, there was no screaming, no blaming, no finger pointing, he ran straight to my sister, asked her if she was okay, checked her for any injury and then proceeded to hug her as tight as possible. She at this time was crying about how sorry she was, and he only said it's okay it's okay it's only a car, the most important is that you are alright.
this story is one i have based my adulthood on, i try to revolve my character around this notion where materialism is of no importance compared to family and human ties and dignity.

this story was and is an inspiration to everyone i tell it to. It shows that money and materialism facilitate the betterment of human life, and therefore should never sacrifice human bonds and character order to obtain the very materials that are going to help get you there. it's a circular notion, money helps but money is not the objective.


inner peace
family
fathers love
serenity
priorities
 

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