Who do you know?

When we were kids, when it came to having money we had no idea of the concept of being 'rich' or 'poor'. Mainly because it didn't matter, we had what we needed. Growing up, the world tells us, "You have to climb that corporate ladder, how much you make defines you, make and take whatever you can." As an adult we begin to realize the importance of putting things in order by their priority in our lives. This morning as I was reading an article about a high profile professional athlete doing some pretty amazing things off the field, a couple of thoughts came to mind. My first thought was, "Who do I know personally that exhibits that kind of selflessness?" I have the pleasure of knowing a lot of great people from many different cultures and walks of life. Many of them would be great examples of selflessness, but this question sparked a very pleasant memory from our childhood.
When we were young we lived across the street from the city park. Now when I say 'city', it's a little misleading because technically our home town was a village. A village with around 450 residents. It is a quiet, very nostalgic place in the middle of farm country. When you could walk from one end of town to the other in 10 minutes, pretty much everyone was your 'neighbor'. The park was a place where everyone gathered after school and all day long in the summer months. Sometimes in the evening or near dark, kids would have to be dragged home because they didn't want to leave. One of my favorite things at the park was when we had pick up baseball games. Usually the oldest two kids would be 'captains' and they would take turns choosing until everyone was on a team. Some of the kids were real characters and many I am still friends with today. You could almost always count on kids from these families being at the park; Dodge's, Alexander's, Ipox's, Crawford's, Watts, Moxley's, Conroy's, Hammer's, Beard's, Kirby's, and others. {No families were left off this list intentionally, these are the ones that come to my mind first.} We would play baseball until it was to dark to see the ball coming off the bat. The way the field was set up, when you hit one 'out of the park', it usually meant it landed in our back yard or possibly hit our house. Our screened in back porch faced the park. Coincidentally, the first one I recall hitting the house was hit by "Arkie" Ipox. I'm sure some older kids probably did it too, but I remember always wanting to be on "Arkie's" team when teams were picked.
One afternoon we were playing and it was getting pretty late in the day. My mom came off our back porch and over to the park with a giant plate of sandwiches and orange koolaid for EVERYONE! This was something she did often, for different occasions, but it was a pretty big deal to us kids. We all sat around on the ground and enjoyed our feast after a hard day of playing. I know, that doesn't seem like a very big deal when you think about it, just sandwiches and flavored water, right? But, as some of you know, my Mom and Dad we're parents to 10 kids. They had their own baseball team! My parents both worked outside the home at different times in their lives, Dad usually had at least 2 jobs it seemed. But they were never very 'wealthy', monetarily. So, as I look back now, making sandwiches and koolaid for two baseball teams really was a pretty big deal. And it was just one of the many examples of selflessness I've seen modeled by our Mom. She has always been involved one way or another helping others. She's watched over countless neighborhood kids, volunteered many hours at the hospital, making meals and taking them to those that were sick, homebound or lost a loved one, cooking, singing, telling stories and entertaining all the Senior Saints that show up at the Senior Center. And all of this while raising and continuing to care for 10 children, 30+ grandchildren, and 20ish great grandchildren.
Yeah, I'm pretty proud of my Mom, but most impotantly, she taught us this: "Life isn't about what you can get or gather up for yourself. It's the culmination of the love of God and how much of yourself you are willing to give to others. Because that is really when you experience true joy here on earth!" I hope that one day when I'm long gone, that my kids or grandkids will be able to say similar things about me as I have said about our mother.
That's the view from my stand. Thanks for reading!