would like to share my experience with Mick.
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This guy I never met or dealt with just helped me out, and trusted me with a pretty substantial amount of cash.
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He handled it better than most of us would I think.
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I left the shop with more knowledge than I had when I got there, and a small sense of wonder at this industry I am becoming part of.
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To me, that spoke volumes.
It certainly does speak volumes. And it's just another of a number of posts in this thread testifing about Mr. Strider's generosity and charity.
It's also points out what is very frustrating to me. It's like the marathon runner who collapses ten feet from the finish line. Mr. Strider has overcome so much adversity and accomplished so much, he has overcome great adversity and made himself a great success by his own efforts. So it is frustrating that he won't take those last steps and finish the race.
Can you point Mr. Strider out to your son and say, "There is a role model for you, son; a man who has beaten great obstacles and made great success for himself, a man who misrepresents his military service and lives his life as a continuous lie." If he would just take those last few steps and solve those last problems, then you could say, "Son, there is a great roll model for you."
He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season...
This is a great story and a great lesson.
But what if, in its beautiful and productive full fruit, the tree -- beautiful and fruitful as it is -- lies continuously about its past insisting that it was never in that poor state and that, in fact, it is was even more glorious?
Mr. Strider has accomplished so much and built such a good name for himself as a knife designer and maker, but he tarnishes it all when he insists on living in a perpetual web of lies. He has built such a good name for himself as a knife designer and maker, as a generous man, as a chairitable man, as a business man and a job creator, and as good citizen, he has achieved by his own efforts so much present glory that he just does not need the false glory of the fictitious past; in fact, it is a weight that pulls him down. It is frustrating to me that he won't let that go, won't take those last few steps and cross the finish line and achieve full fruition.
