A miser can never give a gift without a snag.

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Each Thursday I select a Viking quote, sometimes randomly but ofttimes based upon relevance or meaning to my life at that point in time. Despite these phrases being over a thousand years old I believe most can still offer value in modern society and I find it interesting to ponder, weigh and measure them. _{original im src}

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This week's Viking quote

A miser can never give a gift without a snag. - Gautrek's Saga

I used to know a man who was so willing to give unto others that he'd often place himself at a disadvantage because of it. I'm not just talking about financial giving or material things here although the man would give that also. He would help people, do manual labour, lift heavy things, mow lawns, make things for them or help them do it, teach, mentor and offer wisdom and knowledge gained over his lifetime.

He never asked for anything in return, didn't speak boastfully of his actions and didn't need or want accolades and praise; he just helped, gave, supported and nurtured.

I'll be honest and say there were times I questioned his generosity, moments in which it caused me stress, especially in the latter part of his life, and certainly times I wondered how a man could be so giving to others all the time. I once asked him how and why he could be so generous and he answered simply, I love everybody and I find happiness in demonstrating that through generosity.

Ok, that's a fair answer and one I wasn't about to argue with.

This man, he grew up with very little. He endured the Japanese occupation of his country and home town during World War Two, witnessed brutality of the highest nature, and suffered crippling loss and deprivation; he told me once, that they ate lizards and jungle leaves to stay alive. He knew fear and uncertainty, the Japanese officers' swords would take heads for the smallest of transgressions, and the allied bombing raids designed to dislodge the occupying forces would rain death down upon them as they raced through the jungle, fleeing for their lives. He endured though.

Later, after the war, he studied and became a high school teacher at nineteen years of age, a role he was very good at and passionately loved.

Much later he came to Australia, a sponsored artist on a nation-wide exhibition and speaking tour, met a local girl, married and had children. He taught high school still, in a small rural town and gave of himself: Wisdom, knowledge, understanding and more. He didn't know how to be any other way, nor did he want to be.

Looking back I can only say he was special.

His ability to give without the expectation of receiving anything at all in return was special. He didn't do favours with the expectation of receiving one in return, he did it because he'd grown up with nothing, in a hostile environment, and someone once showed him generosity; a story I'll tell some other time. I think, and I'm only speculating, that he made a decision all those years ago, to repay that generosity by paying it forward for the rest of his life, and he did so until he could do it no longer.

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This man I speak of was my father.

He passed away in 2020 and I miss him. I was reading a passage from the Viking Sagas, came across this quote, and it made me think of him.

He taught me so much: Discipline, the benefit of working hard hard, refusal to quit, ownership, responsibility, caring, empathy, generosity and more. I built on them all later, in my own way, and now feel grateful my father took the time to show me the path and had the ownership and discipline to walk it himself, unswervingly. It helped make me a better man today.

My father was a better man than I could even imagine being though; he was so many things that I am not, nor will ever be, and all because he loved people. I never really got it, that love people part, but in truth, if I delve deep within myself, my need to protect people probably stems from that. I don't know, I'm just guessing.

What I do know is that those people whose lives my father touched are better for it, even if they don't know that.

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That's it for this week, a thousand year-old Viking quote suggesting that it is better to give genuinely and without an agenda, without expecting something in return. A small act of kindness, genuinely given, could change a persons day...Many combined could change the world.

In the comments below, please feel free to disagree with my interpretation and add your own if you like, tell a story around this quote or general topic or simply react to it and let me know what you think, how you see it, how it relates to you or someone you know.

Skol.