Good Men

It’s been a year. A year and I feel his presence next to me more than when he was here, when he was hurting. Somehow out of the way of his own pain he is encouraging me toward a voice I have never had before. This is new, this visiting a family plot in a cemetery, reading the name of my father next to his father- in- law. Both men were strikingly handsome, both loved one woman deeply, both adopted children and raised them unquestioningly as their own. Both served their community and those around them without hesitation. Both men lead quiet unassuming lives of service. Good Men

Suddenly I was hungry, the idea that good men exist or that we can still call up character to model some part of our being on lead me straight to a pastrami sandwich. I always associate food with joy, celebration… relief. I ate it in front of the house he grew up in. Later that evening as I stood in a field at sunset and “face timed” my children, my son lead a prayer. He thanked God for having a chance to know this man. For the blessing of him here on earth.

I think in this time where we are rightly listing the names of those taken in senseless violence by white men whose ancestral history is so broken that they seek ways to break others, we should also remember the good men. In a time where our leadership has no moral compass we must look for examples in our own lives. List those names and act on the why of their good character.

There will come a time when all our lives are marked by stone. But our legacy is the thing that has our grandchildren standing in fields at sunset thanking god for the good men.