Peanuts make cashews special

Life is like cashews without peanuts, that is the bad times make the good times special.

 If you had only cashews to eat how good would they taste?  If you had only peanuts to eat would peanuts taste great?  The idea here is that the more peanuts you have the more special cashews become.  Here are three examples to prove my point.

There was once a story about the Indians living in Oklahoma during a long drought.  It had gone on so long that there was almost nothing to eat.  So the chief decided to send out one of his braves to search for food.   In a couple of days the Indian brave came back to report what he found.  The chief was excited and asked him what he found.  The brave said well, "I have good news and bad news".  So the chief said, "give me the bad news" at which the brave said, "the bad news is all there is to eat is buffalo chips".  The chief was disappointed and said, "well, what is the good news?" to which the brave replied, "there are plenty of buffalo chips".  So perhaps you can see that even buffalo chips could taste good if you were hungry or they might taste good if there were some cashews to go with them.

So if you are not convinced yet how would you enjoy winter if not for the summer?  If not for hot weather would ice cream taste so good?  If not for thirst would a nice cold ice water taste great?

My life is like a cashew surrounded with a special peanut.  Today (21st of December) my wife and I have been married 38 wonderful years.  Why is that so special?  I believe it is because we have gone through thick and thin together.  We have shared successes with big time failures.  We have shared exhilaration with disappointment   A particularly good example of  this was when our third child was born and we were so excited that we called all our friends and family to tell them the good news.  A few hours later the doctor told us our son had down syndrome and we were scared and confused.  But when we held Preston in our arms there was no difference between him and our NORMAL children.  He was a new NUT added to our collection.  He was another cashew.  A few months later the doctors told us he was dangerously ill with infintile spasms and he had an 80% of not making it.  Six months later he was past it.   To say the least we have cried together and laughed together.  We enjoy Preston even more because he is special.

Now it is your turn, try some peanuts with your cashews.

I feel like a cashew surrounded by one wonderful peanut, Shouna Darla Olson, my wife of 38 years.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Variety is the spice of life
• Be thankful for the challenges in life
• Celebrate the victories

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com