For most of my life, I found myself steeled against the compassionate side of life. Never outright cruel, but more that I didn’t have time for “weakness.” I would feel bad when terrible things happened to people, but they were just events of a life we all live. Thanks to an amazing person I met 12 years ago, my perspective changed. My heart has softened and the events of my past that walled this heart have crumbled. Found are the emotions I had swallowed for 20 years in tribute to my wife, Sunny.
The fallout from this “softening” is how easily touched I am by the extraordinary acts of my fellow everyday humans. People crushed by incidents not of their own making, yet rising to the promontory and inspiring our empathy, generosity and willingness to pay it forward. People like Ted Kremer, born with Down’s syndrome, whose parents got him a coveted spot as Bat Boy for the Cincinnati Reds as a 30th birthday present. A kind and gentle-hearted soul that loves kids and just wants to help. He so inspired the Reds after three stints as guest Bat Bay, that he earned a job in their hospitality department. I wept.
Myles Eckert lost his father in Afghanistan just four months after he was born. Now eight years old, he was with his family in early June entering a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Maumee, OH. On the way through the parking lot, he found a $20 bill. Thinking he was going to help pay for dinner with his newly found windfall, he noticed a soldier come through the door with his family. Myles immediately changed his mind, wrote a note and passed the $20 to the soldier, perfectly summarizing his circumstances and letting the soldier know that paying it forward is what they do in his family. The soldier, touched by the generosity of an eight year-old stranger, payed it forward with that same $20. Myles told his mom he wanted to go see his dad, by himself. So she drove him to the cemetery and allowed Myles to go see his dad. She took a photo of the event, showing Myles’ footsteps through the snow leading to his father’s gravesite…and Myles hugging the stone bearing his father’s name. I wept.
The overwhelming spirit of the people in this country astounds me, yet saddens me in the fact that it takes a tragedy to bring out the generosity in our souls. These things have pummeled my heart into that of a teddy bear. I now have two step-children that I hesitate to even qualify as such. They are married each to wonderful mates and have children of their own. I chose not to have any of kids of my own, but my softened heart still asks me, “What if?” Fortunately, the answer lies in the present tense. When I watch these grandchildren grow so quickly, and am embraced by the kids I could have only hoped to have raised into the great people they are now, I know I made the right decisions. For the family and friends that touch and inspire me, with humility and a fortunate heart…I weep.
