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Grand stories

October 19, 2017 by 2 Comments

Grand stories
My great-grandfather would go on to marry the ex-wife of the jealous brake-cutter

My great-grandfather would go on to marry Opal, the ex-wife of the jealous brake-cutter. It’s a long story, but my grandfather (pictured in front of the bread truck) knew how to tell it.

Warren G. Smith was a master storyteller.

He could hold you spellbound for hours as he spun his yarns. Like the time a jealous man cut the brakes of his father’s bread truck, sending them spilling into a ravine halfway across their mountainous route. Or when he dressed as Santa to greet people traveling home for the holidays through the Amtrak station where he volunteered. Or how he rescued a boy from drowning because he was the only one at that lake who knew CPR. His stories were burnished over time like beloved war medals, ready to be brought out at a moment’s notice.

Warren, my grandfather, recently passed away. But his stories live on.

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Filed Under: Big Ideas, Home Tagged With: Building Good, community engagement

Bounded optimism

August 8, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Bounded optimism

Back in 2014, in a move that delighted reporters, bloggers and railfans alike, Amtrak started to offer free traveling residencies to writers. I’ll admit to the temptation to apply. I, too, love what writer Jessica Gross, on Amtrak’s “trial run” for the program, described as the “sense of safety, borne of boundaries” that comes from train travel, finding myself calmed by the erasure of uncertainty.

What to make of boundaries? Read any advice column and you’ll learn that boundaries are set to wall us off from the intrusions of others. Healthy relationships require you to respect your own boundaries, they write, and those of others.

But boundaries are more than ramparts for our hearts. They can also connect us and, in the case of a recent community engagement program, allow us to serve others.

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Filed Under: Big Ideas, Home Tagged With: Building Good, Community, community engagement

Mission statements

July 13, 2017 by 2 Comments

Mission statements
buildinggood_image

Pictured at center and at right during McKinstry community service projects, Kevin Lynn is McKinstry’s community relations specialist.

I recently hosted an Airbnb guest who aimed to visit all 59 national parks by the time she turned 25. She knocked off another three during her stay with us, bringing her total to well over half by age 21.

When I asked why, she explained that she felt a deep sense of awe every time she sat in one of our national parks. It was almost a religious experience, she said. Her journey was a pilgrimage.

All missions are deeply personal. Excellence, power, family, the environment—our private Polaris guides us through the tangle of choices we must make each day.

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Filed Under: Big Ideas, Home Tagged With: Building Good, Community, Community Service, Planet

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