Yesterday, my grandpa Jack Adair passed away peacefully, in his sleep, surrounded by family.
I’ve been trying to think of a good story that encapsulates everything grandpa was to me. I have thousands. He gave me my first rifle and my first knife, and usually taught me important lessons by stepping aside and allowing me, first, to fail on my own. Then, he would step in and show me the correct way. He was very much a believer in learning by doing, figuring it out, and when a solution didn’t exist, he would invent one. I still live by this. If there were a WWJD bracelet for “What would Jack do”, nobody would be wearing any, because they’d all be employed as fan belts, bread ties, cabinet closures, sling shot bands, and every other conceivable use BESIDES a bracelet.
Grandpa taught me to look at the world not as a series of prescribed problems and solutions, but as a collection of opportunities and materials from which to craft my own solutions. He taught me that problems may seem overwhelming at first, but all all you have to do is break them down into a series of smaller, more manageable problems, and get your ass to work attacking them, and pretty soon, that big problem has gotten a whole lot smaller. This, above all else, has become my religion.
Thank you for being such an enormous part of the man I’ve become, grandpa, and thank you for setting such a shining example.
UPDATE: I was asked by my grandma to build my grandpa’s urn – a huge honor. You can see it, and read about its crafting, here.