By Jim Weber
Reprinted from the Touchstone Support Team Letter, August 2007.
To the students of Stratford CiViL Groups upon their receipt of the Mary Catherine Strobel Award for Service Group of the Year and upon reading the Nashville Tennessean article celebrating their award:
Sooner or later, everyone gets their name in the newspaper. It might be a birth announcement or an obituary, a wedding or retirement. You might be recognized as a famous sports figure or a successful business person. You might have a great question for the garden advice column or write editorials giving advice to the world. You might make a name for yourself the way the people did in today’s front page stories: by exacting revenge on others who may or may not have hurt you. Or you might get your photo taken because you did enough good that someone noticed and recognized you for it.
Everyone enjoys a little notice. We all hunger for recognition. The question isn’t whether you’ll get your name in the paper. You will. The question is for what? What do you want to be known for? We will all remember the Virginia Tech killer, and we will either vilify or pity him for his evil deeds. He has made a name for himself, and who but the most wretched of individuals would settle for the reputation he has earned?
What do you want to be known for? There will be a day when your name will be in the paper. Your story will be told by someone, and the words and deeds you have done will be described, briefly or in great detail. What do you want them to say about you? They will say something. You leave a mark on every person you encounter. You walk the halls of this building and every word you speak, every facial expression you show, every physical movement you make makes an impression on someone. What will they say? What do you want them to say?
Every person carves their own headstone – with the weight of their own deeds, with the chisel of their words. Your final epitaph will not be decided by family or friends. It will be written by you, written in the memories of the people you brush by everyday. You will touch them, gently or harshly, in love or indifference, for good or for evil, and your touch will engrave your name on their lives. Those impressions will be your mark on the world. What will it be?
Today the one hundred and fifty students of Stratford High School made a mark in Nashville, Tennessee. While other people were remembered on the front page for their capacity to murder, our students were counted among the finest of people Nashville. While others destroyed lives, you helped save them. Others will be remembered, and perhaps hated, as villains. You will be known for your kindness, your generosity, and your hard work on behalf of those who could not help themselves.
When I read today’s paper, I am drawn to the part of the paper where life, not death is represented. There, in the very center, is a photo in which my wife is embracing one of you, and all the faces around them are lit up with joy. There are so many stories in that photo. Every one of them is a masterpiece, but they all converge into one theme, and it is this. Joy comes from love. You gave love. You received love. You celebrated love with overflowing delight. And someone snapped a photo of love in action. (insert photo – STL/2007/strobel award winning hug)
Savor this. If you die tomorrow, we will remember this, your name in the paper because of your love. This is your life. Your love is your story. There is no better thing to remember. There is no better way to be remembered.