# I can't believe how much my father has grown

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Joke
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-mark-twain-father-has-grown
- Themes: humour, family, growing up, perspective
- Life situations: estranged adult children, judging parents

## Synopsis (editorial 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.

## 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

## Teaching point

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

## 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.

## Source

- [Getting Along with Difficult Family Members | Ajahn Brahm | 18 June 2021](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SKiukqiAK8) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:09:16 to 1:09:46: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SKiukqiAK8&t=4156s