Dear Editor,

This is in response to Jason White’s column from April 22, 2005.

Since you pay dearly for your education, here’s some for free.

We all know the right way. As children we were told not to pick our nose and never sunbathe without lotion SPF 10,000. The signs on the street tell us the right way. The right thing to do is go to church and learn the right way, right? The right way is a national epidemic. Eat right, exercise right, talk right, and like the right. For centuries our elders taught us the right way so we wouldn’t make their mistakes. But it is through those mistakes that they became wise. If we learn more from mistakes than successes, then the foul up is really a genius.

My grandfather is no foul up. He worked hard for more than fifty years. Over those years he made his wife happy and supported six kids. Now he’s in his seventies and his wife is gone and five of his kids are foaming at the mouth over the millions they will inherit when the old goat dies. So why doesn’t he spend his money? He suffers from dementia. He uses a chair in the shower, needs verbal coaching to cook a can of soup, and can no longer dress himself.

He lived the right way and all he has to show for it is the absence of sanity and barrels full of paper that hold no monetary value for him. There is a saying that goes, “If you always do the same thing, you always get the same results.” Our potential can only be stifled by always doing the right thing. To live up to your full potential there must be variety. Nothing can possibly hold our interest forever, and once college is over and you have that dream job at the bread factory, those days of wishing for sun and the river and Full Sail beer will be long gone.

So skip school, quit that job at Dairy Queen and grab some fine company and head down to Sandy River the next day the sun is shining. Enjoy some free education with me. I’ll turn up the Sublime with my tail, smoke an unfiltered Camel between my lips, with a Mirror Pond in my right claw, and let my horns bask in the heavenly fire that is the sun. Live a little for Devil’s sake.

– Brandon Van Bibber
English major