Boat Teaches Humility

Today, I am continuing with the thought that everything I needed to know about life, I learned from a boat. Only this time, Shannon, my niece, asked if she could be a contributor to the column since I let my two sons help me write one.

Like Shannon said, "In just one trip, I learned a lot about the importance of humor and humility from that little boat and, after all, I'm the one who named it 'Baby Boat' among other names I called it that today so long ago."

"Today," Shannon wrote, "I remember that my friend Tracy and I went to the beach with her Aunt Mary and my Aunt 'Laine to fish from the new boat.

They really wanted to get to the fishing, but being 15-year-olds in our tiny bikinis we begged them to drive us down the beach to show off and look for boys.

We were way to cool to sit up front with, of all things, our aunts, so we placed ourselves in the back of the truck on lawn chairs trying to look casual.

"We came up on 15 or 20 shirtless guys playing volleyball on the sand court. It was every teenage girl's Utopia. We struck a pose, pretending not to notice them, when out of the blue, Aunt 'Laine drove right out into the middle of their court and starts laying on the horn yelling, 'Hey, guys, we got girls!!' We hid under Baby Boat as Aunt 'Laine and Aunt Mary tore up the beach so that we could go and fish. They were laughing so hard they were crying. I had no idea that older aunts could laugh like that.

Lesson No. 1: Humor

When we got to where we were to fish, Tracy and I were told to put on long jeans and shirts for safety's sake and to put Baby Boat in the water. There was no way we were going to cover up our gorgeous bodies, so we just jumped into the boat and drove it out to where our aunts couldn't get us.

Baby Boat was basically a Kayak with a battery-operated tiny motor. We mastered boating pretty quickly so we just continued to boat around for pleasure and somewhat in fear of our aunts.

Suddenly Tracy yells, 'Shark!!' when we saw a fin sticking out of the water right next to us -- and I do mean right next to us. Baby Boat and her little motor were no longer fun as the shark fin followed alongside of us.

We even took off our flip-flops and started paddling like the wind. We screamed like 15-year-old girls, "Aunt Mary! Aunt 'Laine! Shark! Help!" They again were rolling with laughter, (humor lesson No.2) and one of them yelled back at us, "It is just a porpoise and we think it is only trying to mate with Baby Boat."

We abandoned ship, but when we jumped into the water, a jellyfish came straight across my bare stomach and got me.

Aunt 'Laine marinated my red, whelped skin with meat tenderizer of all things, and just said, "We told you to wear jeans and shirts."

Thus, Lesson No. 2: Humility
We learned that our two aunts had a great knowledge of the ocean and its dangers, but they were willing to share the humor and the humility with us. After all, isn't that what aunts are for?

Dear Lord, thank you for sharing life's lessons with Tracy and me. We still carry the lessons of humor and humility with us today.