I'm sitting here, at almost midnight, trying to write something about my son Michael, who
has served others for ten years performing humanitarian aid in places like Haiti and Japan after their earthquakes. He has stitched up wounds, built housing, set broken bones, protected a woman from rape, delivered babies in primitive conditions, went to New Orleans and Texas after Katrina and Rita and set up MASH units. He is also a devoted son who never forgets my birthday or our wedding anniversaries, doesn't forget Mother's Day, calls and e-mails to let us know he's OK, visits home when he can. And if that isn't enough, he tells me that some of the best parts of himself he inherited from me.
The following quotation is one of my favorites from my hero, Dr. MLK, Jr. and it makes me think of Michael.

from The Drum Major Instinct
by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you want to be important; wonderful
If you want to be recognized; wonderful
If you want to be great; wonderful
But recognize that he who is greatest among you
shall be your servant.

That's a new definition of greatness.

And this morning the thing I like about it is that by
giving that definition of greatness
it means that everyone can be great because everyone can serve.
You don't have to have a college degree to serve.
You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.
You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.
You don't have to know Einstein's Theory of Relativity to serve.
You don't have to know about the second theory of thermodynamics in
physics to serve.

You only need a heart full of grace
And a soul generated by love
And you can be that servant.