On this Cyber Monday, the last day of November and before December and Giving Tuesday, I am grateful for many things. I am grateful to the men and women who founded Greek-letter organizations, and the builders who came after the founders, and the men and women who still believe in GLOs and support them with their time, talents, and treasures. I am grateful, too, for those of you who read this blog.
I am grateful for the thousands upon thousands of young college students who are doing GLOs proud. The ones who are doing it right don’t ever get much press. All we hear about are the misguided ones who do stupid things, often in altered states, and give us all a black eye and a great deal of angst. Those are the ones who cause us, GLO’s staunchest supporters, to question the existence of GLOs. Here is a news story which will warm your heart. http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/freshman-year/frat-brothers-brighten-hospital-room-lexi-brown-little-girl-fighting-n468421
This weekend, I was also reminded of the “Power of One.” A high school friend, Doreen, with whom I’ve reconnected on facebook and had a wonderful visit with while I was in Florida last year, lost her husband to a brain tumor seven months ago. She posted a powerful story of a visit to WalMart. She didn’t post it to get kudos for her effort. She posted it because it had a powerful effect on her. In the midst of her grief in facing the holidays without the one she loved, in a random encounter while getting a shopping cart, she came to the aid of someone who is on the same path as the one she was on earlier this year. She saw a wife trying to pick up a few things at WalMart while her husband, his head bandaged after surgery to treat a brain tumor, was struggling to get him in a wheelchair cart. Throughout the journey Doreen and her husband took, she would remind us in her facebook posts that “Every Moment Counts” (#EMC). She took the time to touch the lives of two complete strangers, waiting for the couple to finish shopping so she could help them out of the store and then went to their home to help them get into the house. Doreen recounted the conversation they had at the couple’s home, “‘How long did it take for your husband?’ I knew exactly what she was asking… ‘Well,’ I said, ‘Richard was given 12-18 months but he only could hold on for six and a half. But you know…the months don’t really matter…it’s all about the ‘moments,’… making the moments you do have together count. I know it’s hard for you to understand this …but you and your husband have been blessed with a gift. He didn’t die of a heart attack, or in a car crash. God is giving you both the time to say the things you want to say to each other. The time to steal the moments to make memories with so you will have them for the rest of your life to visit when you want or need to.” She said she left the house quickly and dissolved into tears as soon as she was in her car. In the hubbub of Black Friday and Cyber Monday when shopping is the main focus, it’s good to be reminded that all the clothing, electronic equipment, toys, etc. in the world can’t make memories and be a comfort in times of loss. We are each other’s greatest need.
Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. One of my favorite gifts to give is a donation in a member’s honor to a GLO Foundation other than my own. Don’t get me wrong, I often give gifts to the Pi Beta Phi Foundation in honor or memory of dear friends, but giving to other GLO foundations is just as good a feeling.
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There were no winners in coming up with the year in which this quote was written, “We can conceive of no more fitting manner of honoring the early sacrifices of our Founders than to impress the new initiates with the deep meaning of fraternal duty and obligation through the inspiration of the initiation ceremony. In a day when the entire Greek letter system finds itself under fire from many circles, we place our unqualified faith in these men and those who will follow to carry on the traditions of XYZ during the next XX years.” It was written in 1950 and appeared in the Shield of Phi Kappa Psi. The 1950s are often thought of as the golden heyday of GLOs and this is a reminder that our detractors have always been around.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2015. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
