“For he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms.”
Do you recognize this quote? I would offer up some sort of prize if somebody could say where it came from, but with today’s technology anyone can find it in thirty seconds on the internet. However, being that it comes from a story about the holiday season, I thought it an appropriate introduction as it can be directly applied to being a Rotarian.
The majority of the world does not know what Rotary is or what Rotary does. This can be summed up easiest by Rotary’s own, and fairly new, definition; Rotary is 1.2 million neighbors, friends, and community leaders who come together to create positive, lasting change in our communities and around the world. That means that there are approximately seven billion three hundred ninety-eight million eight hundred thousand people on this earth who are not Rotarians.
Being a Rotarian is not the Holy Grail of humanitarianism and conversely, not being a Rotarian does not make you a bad person by any means and, in fact, a large percentage of that number are the people whose lives we hope to make better. In addition, a great portion of those people who are not Rotarians are involved in bettering the quality of life for those less fortunate in other ways.
We are Rotarians! That means, to me, that we have taken on the challenge of helping those less fortunate than ourselves and educating others in terms of what we do, why we do it and how we do it. We should never let naysayers bring us down, but be prepared with education and wisdom, to try and change their minds, opinions and outlooks for it is truly a wonderful thing that we do and we do it selflessly with no recognition needed!
So, let us go forth into the world, each and every one of us, and be the living spirits of good deeds past, good deeds present and good deeds yet to come, every day!
I (as well as Carrie, Emily, Lilly, Scotty dog, Sparty dog, Gabby dog and Marsie cat) wish you the merriest, brightest and safest holidays possible.
Shaun
