A Letter to his Daughter

F Scott Fitzgerald, in A Life of Letters, wrote a beauty to his daughter.  Though some things have long since grown antiquated (such as horsemanship), the letter certainly does do well in pointing out the things that are important, at least from the viewpoint of a parent.  This from a delightful blog called Everyday Grateful.  As if that name wasn't enough to evoke a sense of warmth in even the darkest of souls, the tagline for the blog is "Turning what we have into enough."  Love.

Without further ado, here it is (I love that we're not to worry about insects in general.  Clearly this man was not from Australia)...

Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship

Things not to worry about:

Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about:

What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:

(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

With dearest love,

Daddy