Being Mindful Stories

Joke · Ajahn Brahm

I can't believe how much my father has grown

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Getting Along with Difficult Family Members | Ajahn Brahm | 18 June 2021

1 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

I can't believe how much my father has grown over the last two years and how much he has learned. [laughter] Obviously the meaning was his father was the same but Mark Twain you know just going out into the big world had learned so much was nowhere near as critical to his father once he had more experience of the world

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:09:16 (to 1:09:46)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Returning home after a few years away, a young Mark Twain quipped that he couldn't believe how much his father had grown. Of course, Twain was the one who had changed. Let young people go out into the world. They often come back wiser, and far less critical of their parents.

In brief (our summary)

Mark Twain (as Brahm tells it) runs away at ~18, returns years later and writes with satire that he can't believe how much his father has grown — meaning Twain had changed, not the father.

Teaching point

Sometimes the child who left is the one who needed to grow.

When this story may help

  • estranged adult children
  • judging parents

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Getting Along with Difficult Family Members | Ajahn Brahm | 18 June 2021 · 2021-06-18 · ▶ watch from 1:09:16 to 1:09:46 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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