Below is an excerpt from Grandfather Speaks by Bob Anderson (pages 78-80):
The job of a parent is not to help the child become a good person; it is to make that child a good enough person to make the grandchild a good person. Each man stands on the shoulders of the man that came before him.
Each man is responsible for the person that will follow.
Our greatest responsibility is not to prepare our children to be good adults—strong and brave. Our greatest responsibility is to prepare them to teach our grandchildren to be good adults—strong and brave.
Do not mourn for the dead, grieve for the living.
Each of us will come to the end of our trail in our own time—some sooner, some later. Each will happen at the time it should happen.
When a person dies they should not be mourned, for they have moved to a different place with the Great Spirit. Their journey has been completed.
It is for the living we should shed a tear. We miss the one departed. We have memories that cause us pain; we have an emptiness. That is because something and someone we value has gone from our world.
The departed has no such emptiness. By walking with the Great Spirit, the departed realizes the answers to all questions. The departed sees all things as they truly are.
He has no longing for the world he left behind because he knows it is not left behind. It is a part of all things and this is simply the way of things. It is only the living who do not understand.
Life is hard. From the moment of the first breath, man must struggle. He must struggle against the elements. He struggles against his nature. He struggles against other men.
It is in this struggle that he becomes strong and productive. By struggling, he puts meaning to his existence. By struggling, he shows his children the ways of the world and what victory and defeat look like.
