Recently, Sue & I
experienced the joy of hosting Sueli Dias Pereira as a house guest
for several days. She lives in Brazil so her native language is
Portuguese. Sueli was participating in an English Immersion program
in her serious efforts to learn English. This “Immersion”
brought about 50 Brazilians to Milton and I know that many in the
community interacted and become acquainted with several of them.
God’s hand was clearly
involved in this entire venture, but particularly for Sue and me. We
were not enthusiastic about hosting anyone for that long and, boy,
did we have a list of excuses. We were in the midst of a nearly 3
weeks of traveling by car when the hosting would need to begin. That
meant we would have to write down directions regarding the house –
keys, lights, AC, fridge, idiosyncrasies that all homes have, etc. I
think we erected every single barrier possible and then some.
Someone would have to be available to greet our, at that time,
unknown guest and show them around. That would be a hassle. Because
we had been gone, the house would be dirty and the yard a mess. We
would be tired and out of routine from our trip. I think you get the
picture.
But then, we saw the need
and remembered that we were guests of a wonderful Japanese family in
Nagano back in 1998 when we there for the Olympics. We were part of
the AT & T Home Stay Program and had a positively life changing
experience then. So, despite being way out of our comfort zone, we
relented and agreed to host.
Here is the hand of God.
We agreed to host, and, at the last minute, our originally scheduled
guest was changed and were were blest by Sueli instead. She is
bright, articulate, interested in living life to the fullest, has a
profound faith in God as a cancer survivor, is seriously interested
in learning English and we “clicked” immediately. Sueli had far
more English than we Portuguese. We were able to communicate well.
It was great to learn of each other’s lives as we became
acquainted. We discovered we have many, many things in common.
Sueli’s assignments as
part of the Immersion program, as well as her own interest, had her
interviewing many Milton citizens, Sue & I among them, to learn
of the American way of life and life in our small city. She was
particularly interested in my love for and involvement in Milton. As
I worked at expressing this to her I thought the comments I made at
the 2018 Milton Area Chamber of Commerce’s, Night with the Stars
was a good starting point. At the banquet that evening I was humbled
and honored to be presented with MACC’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sueli, and my other readers, here are some of my thoughts about
Milton.
This award. This
recognition is humbling and overwhelming for me. I am immensely
proud of this moment but never did I imagine I might be so honored.
In and of itself it is not something that I ever sought or worked
toward but it is something I greatly admired. However, it would be
presumptuous of me to say that I am being recognized for my efforts
alone.
Please let me explain.
I think you would agree that we don’t get to choose our parents.
I was most fortunate as my parents, Earl & Mabel, were capable
and loving, with a steadfast, unwaivering faith in God. Their high
values as well as their strong work ethic were implanted in me and my
three siblings. What a great start - but I had nothing to do with
it. While it is true that God gave me talents and abilities that I
continue to cultivate and use, his greatest gift to me were the
influencers, the advocates, the encouragers, the teachers, and the
significant role models he put in my path. He provided my own
personal flock of eagles and always at the time I needed them. Take
a moment and look around this room. Several here have served me in
that very capacity. That's what community is about. All of you have
brought us to this place and time. Rather than a story of personal
achievement it is much more a story of God’s plan for each of us.
To continue the story,
my family moved from Rhode Island to Milton when I was 16. I thought
my world as I knew it was over and nothing could be worse for me than
this move. Well I was partly right, my life as I knew it WAS over
and praise the Lord for that. Within a couple of weeks of arriving in
Milton I met Sue FitzRandolph. I had nothing to do with the move or
the fact that Sue lived in Milton and attended church where my dad
had just become the Pastor and where we met. We sniffed around each
other for a while, both dated other people, but then began to go
steady (that was the way of high school in the late 60’s). We have
now been married for 49 years. Sue’s parents, Ivan & Virginia,
welcomed me to their family and gave me two more phenomenal icons in
my life.
As I look at life
today with the perspective that age brings, I refuse to believe that
this move and meeting were coincidence. The story continues and I
would love to tell all of it but this is not the time nor the place.
Suffice it to say that I would love to claim that I intentionally
planned my life and career moves but I did not. I was placed with
and was privileged to work for forward thinkers, people who worked on
the cutting edge of their industries in teaching, in banking, in
health care, in corporate human resources. People who were willing
to invest in me, to educate me, to advocate for me, and to correct
me. And again, I had very little to do with any of this except to
develop the skills God provided for me.
While I am the
recipient of this most meaningful award tonight others here should be
included. Sitting right here I have Sue, my two daughters Amanda &
Nicole, one of my sons-in-law, Leif, and half of my biker gang Ivan &
Gus Sykora. TJ & Emmit Murphy and their dad, Tom, although unable
to attend tonight are also a piece of this action. Most career
work, rightly or wrongly, demands your time & focus. Time is
finite and has to come from somewhere. It comes from family
sacrificing so that you can focus. Let there be no doubt that my
loved ones sitting at that table right there share so much in this
honor.
But it is also bigger
than immediate family. It is how you choose to define your community
and the things in that community that matter.
One of my favorite
American authors, Wallace Stegner, has this to say – “I believe
that good depends not on things but on the use we make of things.
Everything potent, from human love to atomic energy, is dangerous; it
produces ill about as readily as good; it only becomes good through
the control, the discipline, the wisdom with which we use it. Much of
this control is social, a thing which laws and institutions and
uniforms enforce, but much of it must be personal, and I do not see
how we can evade the obligation to take full responsibility for what
we individually do. Our reward for self-control and the acceptance
of private responsibility is not necessarily money or power.
Self-respect and the respect of others are quite enough. I shall
certainly never do as much with my life as I want to, and I shall
sometimes fail miserably to live up to my conscience whose word I do
not distrust even when I can’t obey it. But I am terribly glad to
be alive; and when I have wit enough to think about it, terribly
proud to be an American, with all the rights and privileges that
those words connote; and most of all I am humble before the
responsibilities that are also mine. For no right comes without a
responsibility, and being born luckier than most of the world’s
millions, I am also born more obligated.”
Let me conclude with
these thoughts. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet! You have to
decide what your values are and how you will live them out. You are
either in or you are out. You cannot whistle a symphony. It takes an
orchestra to play it. If we are looking for community – for the
things that unite us - then each of us has to decide what role is
ours. And then we have to become intentional about implementing the
behaviors that will take us there. Be a yea-sayer. Cast a shadow
rather than living in one. Be a fountain not a drain. Be an advocate.
Be an encourager. Celebrate Milton and do it every day.
This
will be my prayer tonight. Our Father and our God, Your love and
your power are awesome. We, our community, desperately need your
guidance and your care. Empower & equip us to step-up and lead
Milton out of this environment of negativity and dissension. Direct
us and walk beside us on a path of healing and unity. Thank you for
your love, guidance, and watchcare. Thank you for all of the people
and businesses here tonight that make Milton a place where I want to
live, raise my children & grandchildren, and participate &
bask in a phenomenal quality of life.
My life was transformed
in the context of advocates. I am driven to live up to that example
but the journey is always challenging so I use whatever props, aides,
reminders, I have at my disposal to help me along. Special ring tones
fall into that category. Here is what I am currently using so that
anytime someone calls me I get a positive lift: Carry On by Fun .
If you're lost & alone
Or you're sinking like a
stone.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the
ground.
Carry On.
'Cause here we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we're miles away
Sun will come
We will find our way home.
I have found a home in
Milton.
#cruzan4milton#WAM
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