While there are all sorts of cliches about two types of people, so I will spare you that. Instead, let’s contrast through an example.
You are at an event, and a guest, a dignitary/important person comes in unexpectedly after things are underway. The speaker at the front of the room doesn’t acknowledge them.
Example One: A person near you starts chattering about the importance of the person, how rude/bad/whatever-it-is that they are not being acknowledged, and goes into a fairly typical drama-queen/king behavior. At no point will this person get up off their ample rump and take any constructive action to try and be sure the people at the head table are aware of the visitor.
Example Two: A person near you sees the situation, and quietly gets up and makes sure word gets to the head table and the speaker so that they are aware of the visit since they can’t necessarily see the back of the room. They can then decide how to handle the visit.
I just spent a few days with a group of people that were overwhelmingly of Example Two. I was fortunate to be asked to spend time at the first executive gathering of Soldier’s Angels. There is news to come from there, but that is for them to tell.
What was amazing was how the majority of the people there do things, and the exemplar is Patti Patton-Bader. This is a wife and mother who started sending letters and care packages to her son, and when she saw a need to reach other soldiers who were not getting mail and support, enlisted her friends to help. That effort has grown well beyond that start, doing things for soldiers there and here, and for their families. That effort has grown from that beginning to an organization of more than 180,000 volunteers.
That there will be changes is a given, and I am sure that there will be some who won’t like some of them—there always will be. Yet, I do believe the best is yet to come and I look forward to seeing and being a small part of the good to come.
I can’t thank Soldier’s Angels enough for all they have done for me and my embeds. Thanks for letting me be a part of things, and for letting me spend time with so many good people.
LW
