Old Yeller

This past week I watched Old Yeller for maybe the 4th or 5th time in my life. What a wonderful story of friendship, growing up, and taking responsibility. Near the end, after Travis has had to put his dog down and he and his pa are sitting there talking to each other, there is a great statement made by the pa. I don't have the book in front of me but he says to Travis: "Now and then, for no good reason, life will haul off and knock a man flat." And then he goes on to say that, and I'm paraphrasing here, "life has good times too. And if we spend all our good times thinking about the bad, then it all becomes bad". I really like to look at life that way, and I thank Fred Gipson, author of Old Yeller for the lesson he continues to give me long after his death.