Full of life. Kind. Joyful until the end.
Doug Brown used those lovely words in this space two Saturdays ago to wrap up a beautiful column about a couple in their 80s — Jack and Rhonda — that he and his wife met on vacation.
If you didn’t get a chance to read Doug’s Feb. 10 column, please take a few minutes to do so. Trust me. It will brighten your day and remind you of how we can impact someone oftentimes unbeknownst to us.
As I read Doug’s words early Saturday morning before the sun was up, I couldn’t help but think about the impact we can have on others when we choose to do so.
Several years ago I read an article about the impact each of us has every day on the people we encounter — from family members and friends we know well to strangers who may be in our lives only momentarily. It took less than a second to find the article thanks to Google. Technology never ceases to amaze me, but I digress.
“Sociologists tell us the most introverted people will influence 10,000 others in an average lifetime,” the Forbes article said.
Other sources say that number is likely much higher — perhaps even 80,000 people.
During our lifetimes we can impact more people than Lucas Oil Stadium can seat by about 10,000 regardless of our title, job or status but instead by our actions. Choosing to use that influence in a positive way each day is one of the most important choices we have every morning as soon as we wake up. In fact, it might be the most important choice we make all day.
As I read Doug’s column, I found myself thinking back to last summer when my wife and I traveled almost 8,000 miles from northeast Indiana to Kigali, Rwanda.
We spent a week in and around Rwanda’s capital city reconnecting with some of our friends while making new acquaintances, including a group of effervescent women we met in a rural village who run a cooperative.
The women epitomized Ubumuntu — one of the first new words I learned upon arriving in Rwanda. It means humanity — goodness, generosity and kindness. A person who has Ubumuntu is someone who has greatness of heart and shares that sentiment with others.
Greatness of heart — three simple words that convey one of the most beautiful expressions of language I have ever heard to describe a person’s character and what we should strive to be like in our everyday lives — to be good, to be generous and to be kind to those in our lives and those who may enter our lives only for a short time.
When you meet people who personify the spirit of Ubumuntu, you never forget them and you treasure the time you have to share with them.
Meeting such caring and compassionate people should inspire us all to be more like them and to spread that joy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Though we travel the world over the find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.”
May we all carry more Ubumuntu — goodness, generosity and kindness — with us and spread that joy inside of us every day whether it be at home or on vacation.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
