“She’s been helping me since RL passed away.” – Bill Lindsay
Meeting a Grizzly Bear
The key box I had outside Bill’s house simply vanished. I couldn’t believe it. After all, Blue Bell is a quiet rural community and I’d never had anything like that happen before. So, it was a surprise. But, the biggest surprise was about to be sprung.
I called Bill Lindsay to see if he knew anything about the disappearance. That’s when he said, “Call Melynie, she’s been helping me since RL passed away.”
I called Melynie.
“Melynie. Bill told me your father passed away. I’m so sorry I didn’t know! Please tell me what happened.”
Melynie told me that RL had been killed in a car accident seven months earlier!
“Please accept my condolences.” I said. “Some of my warmest memories are of times spent with your father. I’ll always remember his warmth, generosity and goodness.”
Just thinking and talking of RL reminded me of the things he had taught me through modeling. No, RL wasn’t a long, slinky runway model. He was a large man, with a shape more akin to a grizzly bear than a fashion icon.
This would lead one to believe that RL’s interior disposition was identical to his rough and tumble look. But belief is not always based in truth. And here’s what RL taught me about using example to teach truth.
He served other people, even without knowing anything about them, except that they needed help. I know this about him because he once invited me to a gathering centered on helping people neither he nor I knew on the other side of our planet. When I asked him why and how he got involved he simply said, “I found out they needed help, so I inquired about how I could participate.”
I watched him open his heart and wallet that night. His example demonstrated his clear belief that it is service to others that really shapes the character of a person. I trusted him continually as a result.
You see, RL made some decisions about his own behavior well before he was ever in a position to question himself about how he would answer. I respected him because he answered those questions prior to making important judgements. He was somehow able to grasp how important it was to take personal responsibility to build bonds of trust that are essential to the creation of successful relationships and communities.
He modeled the kind of community life he hoped to share with others. And he did it so effectively that his example became his way of persuading others to join him. He was successful in doing this even when it was obvious that no other kind of persuasion could work.
RL’s acts of devotion to building personal relationships were not just affirmed in acts of expression. He had confidence that his example would make the world better and that other people would be drawn to his spark if he had the courage and belief to walk that runway as a model.
“RL’s modeling” validates the idea that one should never assume they are fully formed as a person. As people focused on personal growth, we should continually assume that we are imperfect, unformed, perhaps even fallen. Then, like RL, we should engage in building our individual character.
He recognized that building character and virtue is the foremost work of every generation and every person. Following RL’s model will naturally guide us to our highest purpose. It is the only thing that will satisfy our hunger for meaning and truth. To put it in a different way, our ability to pass along the teachings from other generations depends on our individual behavior.
And, when the key box I had outside Bill’s house simply vanished. I couldn’t believe it because Blue Bell is a quiet rural community and I’d never had anything like that happen there before, so it was a surprise. But the biggest surprise that came my way in Blue Bell had nothing to do with that box and key.
The biggest surprise happened when I met one man there. A man who looked like a grizzly bear on the outside and held the key to humankind’s highest purpose inside his oversized, kind and generous heart.
