The past few months have seen milestones flying by as our firstborn son graduates from high school. That beautifully bittersweet trip culminated last Saturday for us with a really wonderful commencement ceremony at W.F. West High School. The rain held off and the sun even came out in the final moments.
As students spoke about their experiences, as faculty honored the many ways our young people have learned, grown and served, and as we shared the day with other parents we’ve gotten to know over a dozen-plus years, I kept thinking about how lucky we are.
Blessed is a better term.
When thinking about our family, I can't possibly count all our blessings: good health, legacies of faith, a strong and supportive community, a natural world to sustain us, generations of hard-working ancestors who gave us everything we needed to build our own good lives, music and optimism in our hearts... The wonderful list goes on.
It occurs to me that graduation and gratitude are similar words.
They make me think of one of my favorite quotes, from Albert Einstein: "A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving."
Graduation reminded me of that, especially here in Lewis County.
Our community is sustained by a network of independent-minded, hard-working people who take care of themselves, their families, and work together for goals that we share.
In our household, my wife reminds us that in all our actions we should keep our final goal in mind.
For us, that means making decisions so after graduation we can send our children into the world with faith, hope, love, a work ethic, a gentle good humor, and that commitment to giving back. Our prayer is that then they'll be ready to live the lives God envisioned for them.
That's our goal. That's our work.
A fine, fun commencement ceremony was a joyful and important milestone along the way — a time to celebrate a happy childhood, a joyful entrance into adulthood, and all the great folks we've had as helpers, teachers and companions along the way.
Onward!
Giving Our Kids the Gift of Service
Speaking of forming good young men and women, I’ve been thinking a lot about volunteerism and works of service.
I would love to see more ways for our youth — and all of us, in fact — to have ways to plug in to community activities. We saw that earlier this spring with downtown work parties to clean up Centralia and Chehalis.
I hope we can continue to organize, publicize and energize these kinds of events — a few hours on a Saturday morning, let’s say — for people to find ways to work with each other to improve and sustain our shared life together.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Drop me a line on ways we can make community service even more a part of Lewis County life.
Have a Funny Father’s Day
In response to my call for dad jokes to mark this holiday weekend, Mark Obtinario of Winlock sent me a great collection of fatherly funnies.
He started with this one: “I got carded at the liquor store. When I went to get my ID out my Blockbuster card fell out. The clerk said never mind.”
Plus this classic:
How deep is a frog pond?
Knee deep.
Dad Life
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Keep the faith, guys. Take a nap then dive back in. This is the job of a lifetime and you’re the perfect man for the job.
Brian Mittge can be reached at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
