STORIES: Lessons Learned

3 Towels and .25 cent Newspaper

In 1955, after my freshman year of college, I spent the summer working at the newly opened Jackson Lake Lodge, located in Moran, Wyoming. My mode of transportation was a 14-year-old 1941 Hudson automobile that should have received its burial 10 years earlier. Among the car’s other identifying traits, the floorboards had rusted so badly that, if not for a piece of plywood, I could have literally dragged my feet on the highway. The positive is that unlike most 14-year-old cars in this time period, it used no oil—lots of water in the radiator, but no oil. I could never figure out where the water went and why the oil continually got thinner and thinner and clearer and clearer.

In preparation for the 185-mile (298-km) drive home at the end of the summer, I took the car to the only mechanic in Moran. After a quick analysis, the mechanic explained that the engine block was cracked and was leaking water into the oil. That explained the water and oil mystery. I wondered if I could get the water to leak into the gas tank; I would get better gasoline mileage.

Now the confession: after the miracle of arriving home, my father came out and happily greeted me. After a hug and a few pleasantries, he looked into the backseat of the car and saw three Jackson Lake Lodge towels—the kind you cannot buy. With a disappointed look he merely said, “I expected more of you.” I hadn’t thought that what I had done was all that wrong. To me these towels were but a symbol of a full summer’s work at a luxury hotel, a rite of passage. Nevertheless, by taking them I felt I had lost the trust and confidence of my father, and I was devastated.

The following weekend I adjusted the plywood floorboard in my car, filled the radiator with water, and began the 370-mile (595-km) round trip back to Jackson Lake Lodge to return three towels. My father never asked why I was returning to the lodge, and I never explained. It just didn’t need to be said. This was an expensive and painful lesson on honesty that has stayed with me throughout my life.

Sadly, some of the greatest missing values in today’s world are honesty and integrity. In the past few years an increasing number of business leaders have been exposed for dishonesty and other forms of bad behavior. As a result, tens of thousands of loyal, long-term employees have lost their livelihoods and pensions. For some this has resulted in loss of homes, change of education and other life plans. We read and hear of widespread cheating in our schools, with more concern about receiving a grade or degree than learning and preparation. We hear of students who have cheated their way through medical school and are now performing complicated procedures on their patients. The elderly and others are victims of scam artists, often resulting in the loss of homes or life savings. Always this dishonesty and lack of integrity are based on greed, arrogance, and disrespect.

Story by Bishop Richard C. Edgley, 1st Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric

Scripture Thought:
“Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight”
(Proverbs 12:22.)

My Thoughts:
There are values which have been in this world from the very creation. These are values which if honored help us to become a better person and one which, if honored, pleases God. What pleases God, should please us. Having morals and values which have been tried and tested and proven over the eons of times is what our lives should reflect. Trying to incorporate values when maybe it has not been role modeled in our lives can be a very difficult thing to do. But I know that when we do, we are a happier person. This happiness is what we all should seek for and that comes when we please God. There is a calm and peaceful feeling to one's soul as his life is in harmony with what God wants us to be. What He wants us to be is Happy and to have morals and values.

Like Bishop Edgley said, sometimes in order to learn the lessons of life which are extremely important to learn can be very painful and expensive. But in the end, if we have learned the value, we are the better for it. This lesson on honesty and integrity truly shows the value that was so strong in his home that was taught.

I believe that what is important to parents is often what becomes important to us, whether they have values or not, it oftentimes shows up in our own lives somehow.