I can't write when I'm listening to music. It's probably because, after all these years, I can still feel the dancer in me. The music can make me happy or sad, energetic or lethargic almost instantly. It's weird. Other people put music on and then ignore it. It helps them concentrate or relax. I can't do that. I'm always aware of it. It reminds me of how differently we all react to the same external stimulus: Also weird.

Today, I wanted to share the story of a man I heard about last week. I have included the video piece below from the BBC that tells of his extraordinary act of courage, determination, and love and, then, his 50 years of silence about the whole thing. The 50 years of silence is what really got my attention.

My current work in the non profit world puts me in touch with lots of public school educators and social workers. Through those connections, I am beginning to recognize some things. Just as I have an innate reaction to music, others have an innate reaction to those in need. Why that is I can't say, but I do know it's there. It's a feeling you get when you're with someone who's not in it for the glory, or the self-satisfaction, or the status of being a philanthropist, or a teacher, or a volunteer. They just have to do it.

Every time I meet someone with that quality of humility mixed with determination I think of this quote I came across years ago while reading David Brooks' excellent book "The Road to Character". Brooks is talking about Albert Schweitzer and explaining who Schweitzer would hire to work for him at his hospital in the African jungle:

"He did not hire idealists for that hospital, nor did he hire people who had a righteous sense of how much they were giving to the world. He certainly did not hire people who "set out to do something special." He only wanted people who would perform constant acts of service with the no-nonsense attitude that they will simply do what needs doing. "Only a person who feels his preference a matter of course, not something out of the ordinary, and who has no thought of heroism but only of a duty undertaken with sober enthusiasm, is capable of being the sort of spiritual pioneer the world needs." " p.91-91.

I've been meeting a lot of people who "simply do what needs doing." It is both inspiring and humbling. Finding out about Sir Nicholas Winton (thanks, Becky!) gave me another reason to be grateful for all the people in this wide world who get up every day and simply get to work, forgoing their ski vacation . . . (you'll understand if you click the link below).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1JEuQfMZfY