What Matters Most
/A few years back my good friend Roy Herron, in West Tennessee, wrote a book of essays he titled Things Held Dear: Soul Stories for My Sons. It was a small book only in its page count (138) but large in its stories of humanity that Roy called up from his own life.
The foreword to Roy’s book was written by his political mentor Ned McWherter, a Democrat, the longtime speaker of the state house and later governor of Tennessee. And one of the complimentary blurbs about the book was written by Bill Frist, from the other side of the aisle. At the time Frist was a U.S. senator and, four years later, would be the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate.
These men were not enemies but friends, in the way that we thought of the best public servants (of either party) in that middle period that seems now like ancient history. Roy, who trained as a lawyer and a Methodist minister, came by his own politics in the old-fashioned way: He grew up in it. When McWherter was elected governor, in 1986, Roy followed him as state representative for Weakley County. Later on, he was the state senator from that district, then chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party.
His book with its stories of farming and hunting, community and patriotism, come to my mind on this Easter/Passover weekend, in this time of far-flung trouble, when my own thoughts are diving more deeply to the central things in life that matter most to me:
To my own immediate family, near and far. Especially these.
To the good people in all the communities who struggle with hardship.
To the other good people who help them, either with strong arms or good philanthropy.
These thoughts of loved ones and of others are what keep me most centered. They keep me appreciative, help me in the current isolation to keep fear and worry in their place. Considering all these, so much of the rest falls away. It just falls away.
Then I reflect on my own good luck so far - how I am able to do my work remotely, from home, even as many cannot for lack of a device or a connection. And how my circumstances contrast so starkly now with the many who live closer to the edge of life than I do: those who cannot shelter full time, who must shield themselves as best they can against the frightening infection, in order to hold on to a paycheck. And how many of these support the rest of us.
I think of the health care workers serving on the front lines who risk infection to save others (like my sweet niece, a nurse who works in the COVID-19 unit in Chicago). I think of all the young parents doing their best to maintain a semblance of education for their children whose schools are shut down. And how unevenly that must play out across the city. We understand why the schools must be closed now, and yet none of this is normal. None of it is easy. None.
Family, friends, strangers, the poor, and all the good helpers – these are who matter most. In truth, they always matter most. May we all remember that, not only in this fraught spring and summer but also in whatever shape the next “normal” takes, and whenever that day may come.
What we must all hold dear, now and also then, is each other.
