Stephen Rowland: What are the best moments in life? Not awards or daring thrills
What are the moments in life I have enjoyed the most? Was it delivering a commencement address as the featured speaker for the master’s degree class of 2012 at Global University in Springfield, Missouri? Nope.
I did enjoy that speaking engagement, especially with graduating students from all over the world in attendance.
I think what I enjoyed the most during that graduation week was showing Jonathan Ndanshau around town. He was the bachelor’s degree commencement speaker from Tanzania.
The Dean placed him in my charge to assist him in any way I could that week.
Culture shock is a real thing. We eat three meals a day and sometimes snack in between? Unbelievable! In his country, they normally eat one big meal in the afternoon. Hearing his wife call him from Tanzania and the excited conversation that ensued in that exotic sounding language, to my ears, was a real joy.
Perhaps my biggest joy was racing a brand new Aprilia sportbike tuned for the track around the course at Barber Motorsports Park for International Aprilia Racer’s Day? Not really. I still can’t believe they let me ride a brand new powerful sportbike that was theirs, not mine. Especially after watching three other guys crash their own personal bikes on that racecourse.
When I think back to moments that I have enjoyed the most in life, it wasn’t accomplishments or daring thrills. It’s usually pretty simple things, perhaps considered everyday commonplace, even banal, things.
There was my little pug dog who loved me so much. He would lay on my chest in the evening staring into my face, while I was watching TV and try to gauge my emotions. He once was accidentally locked inside a closet; when we found him later he had tears rolling down his cheeks. That dog had emotions.
One day, I was sitting in a circle of Christian Motorcyclists Association members out at Henry Horton State Park when a family member belatedly showed up with him. He recognized me from a distance, wiggled his way out of her arms, took off running at top speed through that circle and launched himself through the air about 4 feet away from me, landing on my chest and nearly knocked me out of my chair. There was a lot of laughter about that. I think there’s some truth about animals being able to sense the goodness or evil in people. When pets growl and avoid someone in social settings, beware of that person.
Biggest enjoyments? Simple things, like playing a board game with my wife Susan, or grandkids, at the kitchen table. Watching those flowers that we planted break through the soil, showing their first leaf. Taking a motorcycle ride with Susan and 13-year-old grandson Brendan, then eating at a restaurant. Taking homemade cookies over to our 99 and 85 year old neighbors, Miss Mary and Miss Beth, respectively.
Watching a sunset on the beach. Building a fire in the fireplace for the family on a cold winter evening. Seeing a very specific prayer answered that was far beyond random chance. Listening to the birds sing in the morning. That look in Susan’s eyes when she tells me that she loves me. The beauty of a landscape in the fall when the leaves are changing colors viewed off the side of a mountain in the Smokies. An old church hymn that I’ve learned to play successfully on my mountain dulcimer.
The most enjoyable moments in my life all seem to revolve around simple times spent with loved ones and pets, or the beauty of God’s creation, or doing something simple to help someone, or enjoying good music or a meal.
It’s never really been the college degree ceremonies, the racing motorcycles, the new cars, job accomplishments or all the new and shiny things money can buy. The thrill of those things wears off quickly. That new car becomes just a car; college diplomas now gather dust in my den, along with the photos of me on the racetrack. The really enjoyable things that endure are loving relationships with my wife and family, and a loving relationship with my Creator.
In our fast-paced modern society, these are the things that often get pushed into the background. It’s a shame their immense value is often overlooked. We don’t know our neighbors; we bicker with our spouses and sometimes rarely see our relatives; we are so incredibly busy making a living that we can’t truly live.
We are saturated with daily news that repeatedly beats into our heads how divided we are politically and how much we are at risk to random violence. We rush from one obligation to another trying not to give in to “road rage” on the highways. We grab fast food and remember, once a long time ago, that we actually had family meals. We’ve traded the slow, simple face-to-face loving relationships for the frenetic highly mobile lifestyle and somehow think that social media will make up for the loss. We’re too busy to slow down and enjoy the birds and the flowers. Then we wonder why we feel isolated and unhappy.
“A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” is a truism uttered by the one who created us. When life becomes totally engulfed in the mad chase for more, and more, and more — those possessions possess us, not the reverse. When Jesus stated that the greatest law was to “Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind” with the second greatest being “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” it wasn’t just a perfunctory religious obligation. It was the key to an emotionally fulfilling lifestyle and an antidote to depression.
I regularly turn down overtime and get out of weekend workdays whenever possible. You “can’t take it with you.”
It’s personal relationships that endure straight into heaven. That’s eternal values.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Stephen Rowland: What are the best moments in life? Not awards or daring thrills
