The Chaplain's Corner: Honoring & Remembering Residents

by Dennis K Smith, Chaplain, Morningside Ministries

In the 1930s, poet Carl Sandburg was finishing his four-volume work entitled Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years. Sandburg called his 75th and final chapter "A Tree is Best Measured When It's Down," a line he borrowed from an old woodsman’s proverb. Sandburg chose that line because he was writing of the events immediately following Lincoln’s assassination, and because he felt that until a life is “down” we are unable to accurately measure the length of its significance, the breadth of its impact, and the depth of its character.

Because of what we are privileged to do in our work, we have the honor of caring for some incredibly gifted and unbelievably lovely residents. The lives of these men and women spanned most of the last century and are leaving their mark on the 21^st Century. Many endured the Great Depression and survived the Second World War. Living amidst trying times, they established families and founded businesses. They supported synagogues, churches and charities. They lived lives of character and consequence.

Like the proverb that Sandburg quoted states, while alive, no man or woman can be fully measured. Only with the passing of time can anyone’s life be properly evaluated. The gushing praise of flatterers and the derisive contempt of adversaries alike are best gauged and reappraised against the lasting results of a person’s words and deeds.

As you look back on the residents who have touched your life, keep their legacy intact. Honor and remember them. Allow their impact to influence your work today.