People Are More Important Than Things

There’s a story that Randy Pausch tells in “The Last Lecture” that I think about often.

==The story goes like this==:

Randy goes to pick up his niece and nephew for a fun ride in the new convertible

When he picks them up, his sister tells her kids to “Be careful in Uncle Randy’s new car. Don’t get it dirty.”

He felt that this set the kids up for failure.

He then proceeds to crack open a can of soda and pour it all over the brand new seats.

==The message==:

People are more important than things.

I know I know, there’s a great argument on the other side of the fence about respecting your things and taking care of something of value… agreed.

But it’s also JUST a “thing”.

This scratch is from one of my 3 kiddos. They didn’t do it on purpose and I couldn’t care less.

Stuff like this happens. There are bigger fish to fry.

People are more important.