Trouble in Mayberry

Recently, I read some news that troubled me greatly. Andy Griffith, beloved actor and all around do-gooder had passed at the age of 86.

Now granted, I haven’t seen much of him lately, so he easily could have been deceased years ago without me knowing about it. However for some reason, the news sat heavy with me. Maybe it’s because I watch Matlock all the time. Yep. Several episodes a week in fact. I’m a big fan of legal shows like “Matlock”, “Murder She Wrote”, “Monk” and “Boston Legal” and have been for as long as I can remember.

Growing up I always wanted to be a lawyer. Getting to informatively argue a point in front of a group seemed pretty cool to me. Not to mention the salary, fancy car and lifestyle that I always imagined came with it.

Matlock, however, was never about all that. Ben Matlock fought for principles, morals and doing what was right. Although now that I think about it he did go fishing pretty often.
Aside from Matlock, Griffith played a number of roles which all shared a common thread: Common sense and attention to detail will often triumph over cheating, lying or being deceitful.
A writer at Bloomberg news captured it nicely:

Griffith perfected the persona of the country hick who prevailed through an abundance of common sense, a keen sense of humor and moral decency, and those who underestimated him usually paid a price.

In real life, Griffith was known for his intolerence of tardiness and laziness. Typical for his generation and something we should all be less complacent about in our own lives.
Most folks would rather do only what is expected of them and no more, often times less.

We complain when things don’t go our way but would rather post our distaste to a status update on Facebook than actually do anything about it.

In my life, I’m aiming to be a bit more like Andy Griffith. Doing what I know to be right, using common sense as often as I can, and not forgeting to take time once in a while to go fishing…methaphorically speaking of course.

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