I will never forget my retirement reception at work. Most businesses have cut back on these events and Shell’s way of doing that was to host a retirement event for two of us at the same time.
The other man got up to make his speech. He had worked until he had reached full retirement age and had thirty years of service with the company, just what ninety-five percent of the audience were planning to do. He and his wife own a home located on a cliff hanging over the ocean in Maine. He talked about sitting on the front porch and sipping his favorite alcoholic beverage while watching the waves come in. The consensus of the group was that he would have a wonderful retirement.
Then it was my turn. I was leaving the company six years before achieving full retirement age. That is what the other five percent of my audience dreamed of being able to do.
I talked about unfulfilled dreams. It involved my passion for helping homeless people, particularly children. I talked about going into housing projects and family shelters. Most of the people looked at me like I was crazy. If I had told them that I was going to shave my head and dance and chant at Jackson Square in New Orleans, they would not have been any more shocked. Two or three smiled and nodded their heads with approval.
Several years later, I was driving our church van with a load of people into the Star of Hope Family Shelter in downtown Houston. Coming out of the shelter was a group of very upper management Shell executives who had been there for a United Way campaign related tour. I knew almost every one of them. I had worked with or for some of them, and others I had just “grown up with” at Shell. For a moment, I did some “what if” thinking.
What happened next really surprised me. I was unloading our puppet boxes out of the back of the van. I turned around and the people from Shell had lined up to shake my hand, one at a time. Each one of them wished me well, even the few that I did not know.
It was not a tribute to me. It was a tribute to my wife who loves children and taught me to be child sensitive. It was a tribute to our God who has inspired us and given us these children.
Isaiah just walked by me, he is probably the most beautiful child on this earth. He hugged me and smiled; it made me cry.
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