There is a hilarious set of scenes in one of my favorite movies, “Secondhand Lions,” that shows the two older men deciding to plant a garden. They order all types of seeds — tomato, beets, lettuce, carrot, corn, squash … you name it and they planted it. As it turns out, everything came up corn … cracked me up! It didn’t matter what the package said it was, it was actually corn.
It reminds me that you are who your fruit says you are. A tree can have a big sign on it that says it is an apple tree, claim that it is an apple tree, and even have on an “apple tree” T-shirt, but if it produces cherries then we know it is a cherry tree. It does not matter that everyone else may think it is an apple tree and even swear that it is an apple tree. It doesn’t matter that the tree thinks and professes it is an apple tree. If it produces cherries, then it is a cherry tree. The fruit it produces tells us what it really is.
I’ve been thinking about my own “fruit” that I produce. Is it the fruit of what type of person I profess to be? I’m doing a lot of self-examining and I think I can say “usually.” I need to keep working on me so that the answer is “always.”
I taught my kids that you can ALWAYS tell the character of a man or woman by the way they treat the person in the room with the least amount of power. It speaks VOLUMES! It absolutely displays what kind of “tree” the person is by this “fruit.” It is one of the reasons I enjoy taking people who are applying for jobs in our district out to eat before we hire them …when I get the time. The discussion we have is fine and I enjoy getting to know them but what I am really watching is how they treat the wait staff. If they ignore the person, do not use “please” and “thank you,” and put on any kind of air that they are better than them by the way they treat and speak to them, that is a deal breaker. I see their fruit.
I challenge folks to watch leaders in our school district — in particular me and the board. Check our fruit. Are we treating people with respect, care, and love? That is the fruit we must grow. Don’t stop there … check our other leaders in our wonderful communities in Teller County. Check our city council members and city government workers. Check our county commissioners as well. I know many of these folks and they would welcome this check on the fruit of their character.
Watch the meetings of all of these boards, councils, and commissions and you will know the character, the integrity, of individual members by the way they speak to those who work for them and the way they treat those with less power than them. It is true ALWAYS. The fruit reveals the tree. It doesn’t matter what the tree professes, the fruit gives it away. Please call me out on it if my fruit does not display strong character traits that lift people and organizations up. I’ll apologize and work to get better if that is the case.
I believe that is a challenge to all of us. Do we know and care for those in our organizations or businesses who have less power than us? The Golden Rule is still golden and requires action to “do unto others.” In our school district, my “staffulty” is much more concerned about what I do and how I treat them than what I say. Fruit matters. You matter and the type of fruit you produce definitely matters.
Steve Woolf is the superintendent of the Woodland Park School District.
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July 07, 2020 at 01:00PM
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You are who your fruit says you are | Elevate Your Education - Colorado Springs Gazette
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