Legacy
I got to thinking about legacies this week. We are all a part of some legacy, whether we realize it or not; it could be our family, our town, or even the legacy of a school. And some legacies are worth embracing and living in.
My school had a special visitor while on what seemed to be an education tour. U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, an alum of my high school, stopped in to talk to some government and history students.
I was on plan time, so I crashed the party.
He spoke a bit about his job and what he does with committees, time spent with constituents, and old high school basketball rivalries. I got to ask him about the content and proceedings of the historic impeachment of Homeland Secretary Mayorkas. He genuinely loved talking to the kids.
Get Roger T. Briggs’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Afterward, I mentioned that my parents knew him in high school. He heard my last name and I saw him think only for a split second. “Yes!” he said. “In high school, they piled a bunch of us into their station wagon to attend an FCA conference!”
My parents had many station wagons, and the details he remembered after all these years hit me hard. But what he said next showed how well he remembered them:
“They had the attitude of whatever we have, it’s God’s to use.”
Dad passed away in May of this year and I got to give his eulogy. Afterward, many people expressed a sentiment similar to the one I heard this week. No matter what, Dad was more than willing to step in and help, giving what he had. He didn’t bat an eye at the expense; everything they had was God’s to use.
While some could be impressed by Senator Marshall’s memory, I was more impressed by what I already knew: this simple attitude left a mark on everyone around Dad, even after forty-five years. That’s a legacy worth living in.
