These Things I Wish
These Things I Wish by Lee Pitts, published by Harper Collins on April 11, 2006, is a 64-page book that reflects on the values of an earlier time. Through a blend of poignant text and beautiful illustrations, Pitts emphasizes the importance of household chores and simple pleasures in developing character in children. The book presents a nostalgic view of parenting, suggesting that contemporary efforts to improve children’s lives may have inadvertently led to a decline in essential virtues.
Readers will find a heartfelt exploration of family and relationships, ethics, and personal growth within its pages. Pitts articulates his wishes for today’s youth, advocating for experiences that foster self-sufficiency, humility, and resilience. By contrasting modern conveniences with the lessons learned from challenges, the book invites reflection on the virtues that are often overlooked in today’s fast-paced world. This edition serves as a thoughtful gift for parents and children alike, encouraging a return to simpler values that can enrich lives.
Official synopsis Publisher
Cherish the values of an earlier time, when household chores and simple pleasures — not the latest video game or a new car at sixteen — helped children to develop their character
When Paul Harvey read Lee Pitts’s essay “These Things I Wish” on his nationally syndicated radio show, Paul Harvey News and Comment, listeners everywhere loved it, and it’s become a classic that’s been passed from parent to child, from friend to friend. Here, for the first time, Pitts’s moving text is presented opposite beautiful illustrations in a book that is the perfect gift for parents and children of all ages.
Pitts writes that present-day parents have tried hard to make life better for their children — but instead they’ve made it worse. What today’s young people need are the things that Pitts wishes for them: hand-me-down clothes, leftover meatloaf, having to mow the lawn and do the dishes, punishment when they’ve done something wrong. . . . He also wishes that they may know the beauty of a mountain range, and the value of hard work and an education.
In plain yet beautiful language, Pitts helps us to envision a simpler time, when children weren’t so overscheduled and spoiled with every consumer delight they could ever want. Self-sufficiency, humility, quiet wisdom, personal strength — these are the virtues that are learned through challenge and adversity. These Things I Wish celebrates values from the past that are so necessary for our future — the values we yearn for in our busy lives.
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