One of the gifts of my childhood came when my father signed me up for a Landmark biographies book-of-the-month club. When the mailman delivered those magic volumes in their brown cardboard boxes I would open them deliciously, letting the titles reveal themselves line by line..."The Life of....Thomas....Jefferson." or "Clara...Barton...Founder of the American Red Cross."
Excited, I would race to a quiet corner of the house, open the book, smell the fresh new pages, and start reading. The lives of the great would unfold before me in all their majesty. How wonderful to live the life of a great person, I thought. One day, I could live a big life also, just like one of those heroes!
As I grew into adulthood I kept asking the question: What did it mean to be a "great" person. For a long time, I thought fame had a lot to do with it. Gradually, it became more clear that meaning mattered more than glory. But, what kind of life is "meaningful"?
Recently, my wife and I hosted a brand new nurse for dinner. Fresh from passing his nursing exam, his face beamed with delight. "I'm so excited to think that starting in two weeks, I'm going to be taking care of patients with diabetes," he announced.
Afflicted with epilepsy himself, this nurse knows what it means to suffer with a chronic illness. Now, he will have the chance to help others in ways that he has been helped. Each day that he does this, his life will emerge as more and more meaningful. He is on the verge of "A Great Life."
In one of her most famous poems, Emily Dickinson answered one of life's most pressing questions with these lines:
"If I can stop one heart from breaking,/ I shall not live in vain;/ If I can ease one life the aching,/ Or cool one pain,/ Or help one fainting robin/ Unto his nest again,/ I shall not live in vain."
Every day, caregivers live lives of greatness and wealth. They distribute life's most valuable currency - Love.
-Rev. Erie Chapman
