"I Wish They Were Emeralds"
In 1996, Walter K. Gordon, the provost of Rutgers-Camden, a Division III school in Camden New Jersey, ended the school's basketball program, over the objections of the players, coach, and the student body, with the comment, "There are times in life situations when you should give up". On February 17, the team had lost an NCAA-record 108 games in a row.
In Rick Reilly's "Point After" essay in the March 11 issue of Sports Illustrated, he comments: "Here, finally, is Gordon, someone who stands up for every kid who never wanted to stay after practice and take extra grounders, every slacker looking for a reason to sleep through his eight o'clock class, every Jenny Craig flunkout who can't resist Ben & Jerry's. Gordon is brave enough to slouch back in his sectional and say what people should have been saying for years: Winners never quit, but quitters get home in time to catch Baywatch."
Reilly concludes his essay by thanking Gordon "for your inspiration. Here's hoping that someday you'll be trying to persuade your grandchild to give long division one more shot, when the kid breaks his pencil, puts on the headphones and says, "Pops, there are times in life situations when you should give up."
I want to thank all of you for taking time to read what I have to say, here and elsewhere. I wouldn’t write or post cartoons if I didn’t care deeply about the future of the Adventist Church. In spite of some nasty bumps on the road, I have never considered pulling a "Gordon". There have been too many encouraging words, constructive criticisms, hugs, votes of confidence, smiles, valentines, chocolate kisses, Christmas presents, and "I loves you's" written in childish scrawls.
In describing her first meeting with her husband, Charles MacArthur, Helen Hayes wrote, "I was at a party, feeling very shy because there were a lot of celebrities around. I was sitting in a corner alone when a very beautiful young man came up to me and offered me some salted peanuts. He said, 'I wish they were emeralds'. That was the end of my heart. I never got it back."
This brief note is my salted peanuts. I wish they were emeralds.
Andy Hanson
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Andy, in just a few short words, you've allowed me to place my feelings towards my current efforts in the proper context. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAndy: "I want to thank all of you for taking time to read what I have to say, here and elsewhere. I wouldn’t write or post cartoons if I didn’t care deeply about the future of the Adventist Church."
ReplyDeleteThanks for your regular postings Andy. I always appreciate the opportunity to reflect and what you are saying - and also to read the comments of others. Often the comments start off slowly then gather a momentum of their own.
I think the quintessence of your postings are found in your words "I care . . . about the future of the Adventist church.
I was a Seventh-day Adventist for 32 years and enjoyed every moment of my time spent as a Sabbath School teacher (27 or so years), as a church worker and later as a missionary. I am always delighted with the good work the SDA church does throughout the world by its many teachers, doctors, dentist and nurses and by the laymen and women who so often set a fine example of what Christianity is all about.
I sense in many of your postings the angst which is felt by many members in the western world - how do we come to grips with challenges which Seventh-day Adventism has never had to face in the past. the good old days of evangelistic 'efforts' seem to have largely passed by, and now Christianity has to take a seat in the multicultural world which Europe has so willingly espoused.
And yet here and there I glimpse new opportunities. No doubt the shape of the church may change - but hey! its all about Jesus - whether in the workplace or on the playground or in larger society we will always find ways to witness creatively to a world which is now more interested in Jesus and less interested in church.