Way to Be! by Gordon B. Hinckley

Author:Gordon B. Hinckley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2002-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

FIFTH, BE TRUE. Said Shakespeare, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not be false to any man” (Hamlet, I, iii, 78-81).

During my first year in junior high an unthinkable thing happened. Though a new junior high building had been constructed and we were the first class to enter its doors, the building was not large enough, and so our seventh-grade class—the youngest class—was sent back to grade school for one additional year.

We were insulted. We were furious. We had already spent six grade-school years in that building, and we felt we deserved something better. We were older now. We were far above going back to school with the “little kids.” The boys of the class met after school, and we decided we simply would not tolerate this kind of treatment. We were determined we would take matters into our own hands by going on strike.

The next day we did not show up at school. But we had no place to go. We couldn’t stay home, because our mothers would ask questions. We didn’t think of going downtown to a show, because in those days we had no money for that. We didn’t think of going to the park because we were afraid we would be seen by Mr. Clayton, the truant officer. We didn’t think of going out behind the school fence and telling shady stories because we didn’t know any. We had never heard of such things as drugs or anything of the kind. So we just wandered around and wasted the day.

The next morning, the principal, Mr. Stearns, was at the front door of the school to greet us. His demeanor matched his name. He said some pretty straightforward things and then told us that we could not come back to school until we brought a note from our parents. That was my first experience with a lockout. Striking, he said, was not the way to settle a problem. We were expected to be responsible citizens, and if we had a complaint, we could come to the principal’s office and discuss it.

There was only one thing to do—and that was to go home and get the note.

I remember walking sheepishly into the house. My mother asked me what was wrong. I told her what I had done the day before and that I now needed a note to take back to the principal. She wrote a note. It was very brief. It was the most stinging rebuke she ever gave me. It read as follows:

Dear Mr. Stearns,

Please excuse Gordon’s absence yesterday. His action was simply an impulse to follow the crowd. She signed it and handed it to me.

I have never forgotten my mother’s note. Though I had been an active party to the action we had taken, I resolved then and there that I would never do anything on the basis of simply following the crowd. I determined then and there that I would make my own decisions on the basis of their merits and not be influenced by those around me.

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