Looking at a piece of newspaper I was employing for utility rather than edification, I saw a familiar face from my past. “I know him.” I said out loud. He inspired me to be a kind teacher, a compassionate human.
His name is Joseph Elder, a professor of sociology at the University of Madison, where he taught for 53 years. I was looking at his obituary; he lived to be 95 years old. At nineteen, I took his civilizations of India class which was mindboggling rich and opened my eyes to global perspectives I had never considered. Joe was a smart and wise man, but why I remember him so keenly, so clearly, decades later is because of his profound kindness.
On the day before Christmas Eve, my final paper was due (it is likely I should have managed my time better). I was struggling with a nasty cold, preventing me from writing clearly and finishing my paper. I needed to call Prof. Joe at home to request an extension. I was mortified. Trembling, I called, I could hear his family in the background gathered for the holidays. “Professor Elder, I am so sorry to bother you….”.
Joe was magnanimous and compassionate, he asked if I had family or friends to care for me, he offered to bring me a healing soup that “always helped.” I got off the phone and cried with relief and deep gratitude, determined to write the best paper of my life for this man.
His responsibility to the 1,000+students that semester did not require this level of generosity. And when I saw his face smiling back at me decades later, I instantly recalled how it sparked a desire to be like Joe whenever I could. As it turns out, Joe Elder left a long legacy of compassion, instilling that spark of unfettered kindness within many institutions and souls.
I wonder who offered you unfettered grace? What legacy of compassion do you carry? What ancestors can you call for inspiration when the world seems to be embracing cruelty?
“There is no greater remedy for helplessness than helping someone else, no greater salve for sorrow than according gladness to another. What makes life livable despite the cruelties of chance, these little acts of mercy, of tenderness, the small clear voice rising over the cacophony of the quarrelsome, over the complaint choir of the cynics, to insist again and again that the world is beautiful and full of kindness.” – Maria Popova
Compassion can transform individual lives, strengthen communities, and reshape entire societies. When we respond with empathy and kindness, we ease others’ suffering and encourage them to pass that same care forward. Leaving a legacy of compassion plants seeds of lasting change, shaping values and habits that future generations will carry on.
May we all be a part of that legacy,
Rev. Kimberlee Tomczak Carlson
Minister of Faith Formation