There are times when you just want to be selfish!

And there are times where being selfish is actually a great way to share!

Here, I am being selfish by using my blog to celebrate a personal pleasure rather than a workplace lesson, etc…  Alas, my selfish pleasure is also a great lesson n sharing!

As many of you know I have been a single father for twelve years.  I have always taken great pleasure when people say to me; “Happy Mother’s Day!”  However, I acknowledge I am truly NOT a Mother; a mother figure perhaps, but NOT a Mother. 

This Mother’s Day was for my mom!  We had agreed upon a menu (Lobster, Country Ribs, and grilled Asparagus; I added to that steamed shrimp!).  As I was par boiling the ribs and my mother enjoying a fresh White Russian with crushed ice my phone rang.

My neighbor L.J.called and said, “what are you doing?

I said, “I am cooking for my mom!  What are you doing?”

“I am catching the Heck (censored for mother’s day) out of fish!  You gotta put a pole in!”

What to do?

Always the quick thinker, I asked my mother if she would like to enjoy her drink in the patch of sun down by the dock? (for more about the dock read my blog “Generation Y: I am Starting to Understand a Little” at:  https://blog.lonkieffer.com/?p=18)

Once down by the dock I proceded to put a pole in the water, handed my mother her drink and run back up to the deck to flip the ribs.  For the next several minutes I ran from dock-to-deck and back.  On my first trip back from deck-to-dock I got a camera and another pole.  I set the pole and handed mom the camera then back from dock-to-deck to check the ribs, etc.. 

On my second trip back from deck-to-dock my first pole bent down the the water and the reel began to spin wildly!  I grapped the pole and began reeling and yelling loudly, “L.J!”

I was about to catch my first Rock Fish and had no idea what to do; and I had forgotten my net!  So there I was yelling and reeling and I look over my shoulder; mom is gone!

Where did she go? 

I get the Rock Fish close to the dock and without the net there is no way for me to actually bring him in!  I yelled for LJ again and then my 72 year old mother magically appears and gets down on her hands and knees, leans over the water and scoops up my prize Rock Fishing using the net she had retrieved on her own second trip from deck-to-dock!

So, on Mother’s Day, I selfishly hooked my first Rock Fish. 

But it was mom that actually landed the 33-inch mini-whale just as LJ and my now young-adult kids arrived at the dock to witness the whole thing!

It was as if MOM and I, from two different generations, were both transported in time to my (OUR) childhood when I would call her out to the back yard and say, “Watch this… no wait a minute… just one more…!”–  as I would try to make a basket; do a cartwheel; catch a lighting bug!

So, on Mother’s Day, I selfishly went fishing. 

This is my story of the big one that DIDN’t get away and I am sharing it with you!

I burnt the ribs.

Am I selfish!?

* * *

Lon Kieffer, author of “Get Out of Bed and Go to Work!”, Speaker, Consultant, Executive Recruiter and Expert on Workplace Culture Change and Generational Conflicts, gives seminars, keynote and plenary addresses, runs annual sales meetings, and provides Common Sense Consulting at:  www.LonKieffer.com. He can be reached at:  (302) 462-6748 or via email at:  Lon@LonKieffer.com