Underground Railroad Eureka

Blazing hot day…for northwest New York.

A few brothers, me and some friends were outside goofing off and catching bees in the raspberry bushes with jars and our bare hands.We were dumb. This story helps show that, but also how easy it is for us to take partial information and think it a reality. This story is just an example, from us kids, but it translates well into everyday life.

Us Kleinhei were homeschooled as kids and we spent a lot of time learning hands-on (probably more on this in a later post). I wish I could remember the look on our parent’s faces when they heard what we did. It must’ve been amazing, and their inner glee at the hilarity must’ve been almost overwhelming to hold back.

Anywho, somehow we had come across “The Underground Railroad”. Not taking the time to read on about what it was, an amazing process of saving some humanity, we let our imaginations take control of our little minds. Anxious to be the discoverers of an old underground railroad tunnel that used to cart slaves from shackles to freedom, we sprinted out of the house and started digging in Mom’s flower garden.

We dug for hours with our dad’s shovels, hoes, and rakes. Once the sweat started to sting our eyes we got a bit slow, but we were determined to find this historic passageway. When the dirt hole was about 4 feet deep and the same size in width one of us hit something hard.

Eureka!!

We hacked and hammered and axed away at the wood we had found; ecstatic in our passionate belief that we were going down in history books. When we couldn’t get through the wood anymore we all ran to the sliding glass door of our house 100 feet away.

Rushing into the house we screamed for mom, “we did it!!”, “we found the underground railroad!!”, “Come help us finish the hole please!”.

We were learning with our hands.

And then we learned from our heads.

Mom, holding back the tears welling up from these kid’s silly triumphant tale of exploration, calmly told us the true nature of the underground railroad. To our dismay, we slowly accepted that we weren’t going to be digging a tunnel to find a historic site.

Alright, so what next?

We found our smallest walking brother and threw him in the hole for a few hours. We were little shit heads. Though we got a laugh out of it, I’m sure he carried that around with him for a while – hell, to this day, he could kick all of our butts lol

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little story. Let’s try to understand situations before diving head first into a deep pit of disparity. Or, on the flip side, if we do dive in, let’s have some fun with it after and not be dicks.

Stay well,

Jason

Published by Jason Kleinhenz

Why: I’m passionate about family, friends, community, helping people, rugby, and drumming. How: I’m involved in cultivating culture, philanthropy, startups and new ventures, young professionals, mentors and mentoring, biomedical engineering, cross functional and cross disciplined teams, sharing, and love. What: I’m an engineer, business owner, drummer, rugby player, philanthropist, community lover, and passionate beach bum. More info: You can see my other pages for more information, and please feel free to contact me if you think we could have a mutually beneficial discussion. If you’d like to get in touch, please feel free to say hello through any of the social links below.

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