Generations of Accountability

By Kyle Kesses

Today I cleaned the downstairs of the house in advance of Christmas Eve guests. In the process I thought about my grandmother and then wrote a story about her.

An hour later, my parents showed up and re-cleaned some of the same areas I’d just worked on, unintentionally exposing flaws in the work I had done. I thanked them internally because it reminds me that completing tasks is a good start but it’s not a good enough finish. Quality work is a more important ethic than hard work.

…

My grandmother grew up during the Great Depression. As though that wasn’t a strong enough lesson in how to “live without,” her father was a gambling addict.

One day she and her mother returned home to a kitchen without a stove. He had traded it for one of his debts. It wasn’t long before they returned home to an even bigger absence. My grandmother spent most of her life without a father.

She was tough as a mother, my mom frequently tells me. Saturdays were for washing walls, cleaning bathrooms, ironing linens, doing laundry, and cooking meals.

I must have been six or seven when my mom started teaching me those same skills. One day, when my grandmother came to visit, my mom called her into the bathroom to show her the work I had done.

I remember the feeling of gratitude that swelled in me when she approved.

To this day, I think of my grandmother most when cleaning bathrooms and cooking meals.

Last week, while listening to @steveluckenbach speak at a business conference I decided to make a gratitude list, post it on the refrigerator, and add to it daily.

After cleaning the bathrooms this afternoon, I stripped off the rubber gloves and wrote…

I’m grateful 30 years with my grandmother and all that reminds me of her.

@kylekesses