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Every six to eight weeks for the past year-and-a-half or so, I have a lunch meeting with a retired corporate executive.
The retired executive has a real interest in the work of the United Way of Wyoming Valley and our focus on childhood poverty. We enjoy talking about some of the most pressing issues facing the community and the challenges of our work. I really value his thoughts and wise counsel, and I have learned a lot from his words and his actions.
Early on in our conversations, I learned he had an advanced stage of cancer. I have never once heard him complain or feel sorry for himself, and, in fact, he really does not want to talk about his health issues. He feels very blessed by the love of his family, and grateful for the medical care he is getting from his doctors. I believe he is handling these issues as he handled the corporate business issues throughout his career – with a pragmatic but positive attitude, and a hopefulness for the future.
Recently, the retired executive had surgery, and last week he called to ask me to visit with him at his home. When I got there, he told me that the cancer has spread. That’s all he wanted to say about it. We both knew that our lunch meetings are not likely to happen anymore. He wanted me to have several inspirational photos that he treasured because of the leadership and values they represented to him.
The four photos are of Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower. These men were all extraordinary leaders with visions of peace, justice and a better future. I am honored to have them, and they already are hanging in my office.
On the day that I received the gift of these photos, our nation was just learning about and mourning the police shootings in Dallas, Texas, as well as the shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana only days before. With these on the heels of the recent tragedies in Orlando and Paris, I only could imagine what these former world leaders and visionaries would tell us today.
For decades, the United Way has been promoting the ideals that together we are stronger, and that we are all connected and dependent on each other. Like the leaders now pictured on my wall, we value peace and justice, and every day we work for the common good and a better future for all.
Answers and solutions to pressing problems such as hunger, poverty, homelessness, access to health care, educational attainment, injustice and others will never be easy. Yet, indifference, divisiveness, greed, violence and murder make finding those solutions that much harder.
Locally, across our nation and throughout the world, there is still much to be done to realize King’s dream and Gandhi’s vision. We can do better. We always must choose love over hate and peace over violence, and like my retired executive friend, regardless of our current circumstance, we must always remain hopeful.
I will miss having lunch with my friend. I always will appreciate the wisdom he shared and the example he modeled. Someday, I will pass those photos on to someone else who is inspired to make a difference.
Until then, they will remind me that even the most pressing problems we face can be better addressed when we live our values – and when we LIVE UNITED.