On yet another early morning flight from Atlanta, I picked up a book that I have been reading off and on for the last month or so. “Make it Plain” is Vernon Jordan’s latest book, and it traces his life and career over the last 40 years through the speeches that he has given during that period.
I have been privileged to meet and hear Mr. Jordan speak several times; most often as a child when my parents would dress me in a suit and tie and drag me to a church or hotel ballroom around the country for a special service, banquet, convention or conference.
As I approached the end of the book I began to read more carefully when Mr. Jordan recounted many of the great men that he had worked and studied with and for over the course of his journey. Several encounters were fleeting and others more substantial, but those that he recalled had an impact on him and shaped his ambitions and most unlikely career path.
I paused in a moment of thanksgiving to my parents and grandparents for similarly exposing me, my brother and my sister, a generation later than Mr. Jordan, to men and women of similar greatness. In addition to Vernon Jordan, people such as Maya Angelou, Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King, Sr., Gladys Knight, Robert Schuler, Desmond Tutu, and Betty Shabazz come to mind, along with many other greats in the arts, theology and social justice and other walks of life with whom we seemed to interact weekly at the dinner table or on the second pew of a church somewhere. “Greats,” of course, also refers to the many teachers, undertakers, cab drivers, maids and small business owners in our lives who were always well dressed, stood up straight, spoke “the king’s English” and demanded that we look them in the eye when we spoke and required that we give them a firm handshake.
But, as all of these encounters ran through my mind, I also wondered, “Where has the greatness gone?”
Where are the men and women who are determined to be a credit to their race or their community? Where are the leaders who are determined to stand up for justice and fairness? Where are the achievers who are compelled to demonstrate excellence and integrity, or to be the best in their field of study or profession? Where has the greatness gone?
My life, and my children’s, is very similar to the one that I enjoyed growing up. Crystal and I work very hard to provide for our family, just like my parents did. We live in a safe neighborhood, send our kids to the best schools we can afford, take an occasional vacation, make sure that the clothes are clean and the food is (relatively) healthy.
But life is also very different. It seems that our community today is faster moving, much smaller, less intimate and far more spread out than the one that I grew up enjoying. While still an important part of our family life, we are also not as close to the church as our family was when I was a child.
So, I wondered, “Do I interact with greatness?” Who do I bring home for dinner that my kids can learn from? Who do I drag my boys out to hear speak and to inspire them? How do I demonstrate that it’s our intellect and our service and our character that makes a difference – not our possessions? How do I point my boys towards greatness?
Where has the greatness gone?