A close friend and former Bishop of my church held a party for his son last night. The lad is going on a mission for the Mormon church and was belatedly being honored for becoming an Eagle Scout.
Four ladies, cousins as it turned out, sang two of my favorite songs a capella without stylizing them beyond recognition. The songs were the national anthem and How Great Thou Art. They did an amazingly great job (and looked better than the Statler Brothers, too.)
It was pointed out that the young man was a top student, a community leader, and a good all-around kid. There were people from the church and community, including former teachers and a police lieutenant, who spoke of him in glowing terms.
Something else that struck me. He had received congratulatory letters from a great number of people. I'm aware that these are mass-generated letters sent out to most Eagle Scouts, but listen to the parrtial list of people who sent them:
George H. W. and Barbara Bush
George W. and Laura Bush
Dick and Lynn Cheney
Arnold Schwartzenegger
Bill Cosby
Charleton Heston
Orrin Hatch
A dozen or more of the church hierarchy
an American astronaut (can't recall the man's name.)
Does anyone notice a group glaringly absent from this list?
I was proud of the kid. I've known him for seventeen years. He spent the best part of two weeks this past summer working on my new patio. Every Christmas Eve except one for the last twelve years he has accompanied his parents and sister, and later his younger brother, to sing Christmas carols on our front porch.
He's off to the training center in Salt Lake next week. He'll be back in about two and a half years.
Oh, yeah. Do you know his reward for all this hard work? The church is sending him to the backwaters of Brazil to spread the LDS gospel to rhe people there. He won't be in Rio, but some place without any of the niceties of life.
He was so excited I thought he was going to wet his pants.
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