“They looked at me, and were so full of delight in the pleasure they were giving me that some final thread of resistance gave way and I understood not only how entirely generous they were but also that generosity might be the greatest pleasure there is.” – William Maxwell, So Long, See You Tomorrow
This past Thursday and Friday all of the senior management of our company were attending meetings at our parent corporation offices in New Orleans. Upon my return I learned that while we were absent a public plea was sent out by our local Goodwill Industries chapter for help in funding the materials needed to build a wheelchair ramp for an elderly lady in our community. Immediately upon receiving that communication, our staff and associates responded and within two hours the entire needed funds were raised by them.
While this is not an isolated occurrence, what was so perfect about the ramp contribution was that it happened without our direct involvement. As previously mentioned, all of our management were absent. Our staff and associates, using our company network and following their own and our corporate values, communicated the need, gathered support, and responded immediately and generously.
I am humbly proud to be one of the encouraging leaders of a company that is committed in word and in deed to the precept that true greatness lies beyond ourselves and that, while we may be the best at what we do, we all must humbly acknowledge that we are far from being the best that we can be. Commitment to that is wherein we discover the path to true greatness.
This is the environment that I am blessed to live and work in.
I am rich indeed!
As is the theme of poet, Charles MacKay’s poem, Song of Life, every day, in seemingly small ways, we encounter opportunities for a kindness. However, we often cannot imagine the significant impact that our selfless acts have on the person receiving them or on ourselves as givers. For as the author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “To be rich in admiration and free from envy, to rejoice greatly in the good of others, to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear possession in absence or unkindness – these are the gifts which money cannot buy.”
Song of Life
A traveler on a dusty road
Strewed acorns on a lea;
And one took root and sprouted up,
And grew into a tree.
Love sought its shade at evening time,
To breathe its early vows;
And Age was pleased, in heights of noon,
To bask beneath its boughs.
The dormouse loved its dangling twigs,
The birds sweet music bore –
It stood a glory in its place,
A blessing evermore.
A little spring had lost its way
Amid the grass and fern;
A passing stranger scooped a well
Where weary men might turn.
He walled it in, and hung with care
A ladle on the brink;
He thought not of the deed he did,
But judged that Toil might drink.
He passed again; and lo! The well,
By summer never dried,
Had cooled ten thousand parched tongues,
And saved a life beside.
A nameless man, amid the crowd
That thronged the daily mart,
Let fall a word of hope and love,
Unstudied from the heart,
A whisper of the tumult thrown,
A transitory breath,
It raised a brother from the dust,
It saved a soul from death.
O germ! O fount! O word of love!
O thought at random cast!
Ye were but little at the first,
But mighty at the last.
Have an AWE-full weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacque