Focus on Charity, Industry, and Economy

I'm not much of a navigator on the pages of Facebook. It's a good way to keep up with a large swipe of family and friends and so I check in now and again.  The comments, however, are too much like notes passed in class for my liking and often leave me wondering, "What the h?"

That said, a recent entry made reference to an old friend's Dad who has long since passed.  He was a man I knew for several years. He was my dentist. His daughter was my longtime girlfriend and, in spite of that, he seemed to like me. Usually. I spent hours in his home and even travelled with the family a time or two. He was a private and quiet man, at times almost withdrawn, but that seems to be the lot of many professionals who must have one to one encounters with people all day long. I've seen him funny, I've seen him mad, I've seen him dumbfounded as the father of seven and husband of one. Thinking about Dr. Wilhelm today, however, the three things that I recall as defining the man are industry, economy, and charity. He was a product of a lost generation, fashioned from an ethic which no longer seems to hold any stature.

First, he believed in hard work.  Not just the necessity of hard work but in the value of the endeavor.  He was of a generation which believed it was important to work hard. You didn't have to love it.  You didn't necessarily have to find it fulfilling. One simply had to do it-- and do it well.  Second, he believed in economy. He was frugal; and if you ask his family they would probably argue he was so to a fault. But his was a generation which did not take success and means for granted. His generation did not know the meaning of entitlement. What they did understand was what it meant to want and need and to go without. Economy, as restrictive as it could be, was intended to ensure freedom from want. Third he understood the meaning of charity and the obligation one has to extend care and kindness to others. Like hard work, it didn't mean you had to like it, it was simply what one did.  If you had the means to lend a hand then that is what you did. You did it because you could, and because you should, even when it was inconvenient.

In my time it seems celebrity, recreation, and consumption have become the yardsticks by which success is measured. There are still a few people out there like Dr. Wilhelm, but it seems like very few. Most people today want to be seen as successful based on the job they hold, not the work they do; what they own, not what they provide; what they've accomplished for themselves, not what they've done for others.

Perhaps that old generation acted as they did out of fear or some selfish self-preserving motive. I like to think better. I found it heartening to see a name, recall a man, and have brought back into focus just what should be important in one's life. He was a very private man who was public and important in ways both timeless and worth emulation. Now that's success.