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Two men cutting firewood

At the close of WWII in 1945, I had to make a choice: whether to go to work with my brother-in-law at his filling station or attend college on the G.I. bill. I talked it over with my grandfather.

“Well, son,” he said, “let’s look at it this way. Let’s say two men have to cut a certain amount of firewood in a day. One of them gets out of bed early, picks up a dull chopping axe at the woodshed and rushes to the forest before sunrise. He puts in a long hard day trying to produce his assigned quota of wood.

“Now the other guy gets up after a full night’s rest, picks up his axe at the woodshed and spends some time sharpening it on a grinding stone. He then goes to the forest and begins work. In half the time and with much greater efficiency he produces even more wood than the other fellow with the dull axe.”

Grandfather’s message came to me loud and clear.

Howard E. Alley, Roswell, Ga., Haywood EMC

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