These Things I Wish »

Lee Pitts is the author of several books, including Back Door People, Essays from God's Country, People Who Live at the End of Dirt Roads, and A Collection of Characters. He is a frequent contributor to radio shows, and his weekly column, "It's the Pitts," is syndicated to newspapers and magazines nationwide. Also executive editor of the Livestock Market Digest, he lives with his wife in Los Osos, California.

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.