An act of
kindness could plant a seed of friendship that could grow beautifully
through the years. Although
sometimes, we lose perspective of the difference we can make when we care
more on what we can give than what we can receive, people will never
forget how we make them feel.
As the saying goes, “What goes around comes around;”
we receive in return more than what we've given out. Here's
a story about one of the two singers of Sound of Silence and
Bridge Over The Troubled Water (now playing) to mention a few. Let’s learn from the following excerpt from a speech delivered by
Mr. William R. Brody to the graduating class of John Hopkins University on
May 26, 2005.
There is a man who I'd like to tell you about. His name is Sandy Greenberg.
In his youth, Sandy was a very good student, but he came from a poor family.
And so he went to Columbia University on a scholarship and there he met his
roommate who also was receiving financial aid.
Now while he was
a sophomore at Columbia University, Sandy contracted an eye disease that
eventually proved to be glaucoma. But the trouble was, it wasn't detected
early enough, and as a result, he became legally blind. I ask you all to
imagine for a moment having been sighted all your life, and then all of a
sudden being faced, in a very competitive school, with losing so much sight
you could no longer read. This is what happened to Sandy Greenberg.
But something else happened to Sandy that may surprise you. Sandy said that
when he lost his sight, his roommate would read his textbooks to him, every
night.
So I'm going to put you in that position, in a competitive school like
Columbia, or Johns Hopkins. If your roommate had a serious disability, would
you take the time to read textbooks to him every night, knowing the more you
spend time reading textbooks to your roommate, perhaps the less well you
might do with your other activities? That's not as easy a question as it
first appears.
But luckily for Sandy, his roommate did. And as a result, Sandy went on to
graduate with honors. He got a Fulbright Scholarship, and he went off to
study at Oxford. He was still quite poor, but he said he had managed to save
about five hundred dollars as he went along.
His roommate, meanwhile, also went on to graduate school. One day, Sandy got
a call from him at Oxford. And his former roommate said, "Sandy I'm
really unhappy. I really don't like being in graduate school, and I don't
want to do this."
So Sandy asked, "Well what do you want to do?"
And
his roommate told him, "Sandy, I really love to sing. I have a high
school friend who plays the guitar. And we would really like to try our hand
in the music business. But we need to make a promo record, and in order to
do that, I need $500."
So Sandy Greenberg told me he took all his life savings and sent it to his
roommate. He told me, "You know, what else could I do? He made my life;
I needed to help make his life."
So, I hope you'll remember the power of doing well by doing good. Each of
you, in your own lives, will be faced with challenges, with roadblocks, with
problems that you didn't anticipate or expect. How you are able to deal with
adversity will be influenced, to no small extent, by how you deal with
others along the way. What you get will depend a lot on what you give. And
that's the end of the story of doing well, by doing good.
Ah! I almost forgot. You probably are wanting to know who Sandy's roommate
was. I think you've heard of him. Sandy's roommate was a fellow by the name
of Art Garfunkel, and he teamed up with another musician by the name of Paul
Simon. That $500 helped them cut a record that eventually became "The
Sounds of Silence." Recently, we had the pleasure of going to Sandy's
daughter's wedding, and it was Art Garfunkel who sang as Sandy walked his
daughter down the aisle.
When you get to be my age (which, for some of you, is really old, though it
doesn't seem so old to me anymore), you will find yourself beginning to ask,
did my life make a difference?
That's the day of personal reckoning. And I think the only way to face it is
to consider, every day of your life: How can I do something for somebody
else? How can I give back to others? It may be teaching, it may be becoming
a doctor, you may be successful in business - no matter what your career
path, there will always be the opportunity to give back. The chance will
present itself to be giving of your time, giving of your money, but mostly,
to be giving of yourselves, of your own heart and soul.
My hope today, as you commence to new beginnings, is you will always keep
your eyes open for those opportunities to give and embrace them as your best
sure way of doing well.
For it only takes a moment to reach out to be a friend, but to the one
who needs you the memory never ends.-Tom Krause So remember that your actions may help change a life someday. Always
think about the person that you meet along your way.
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Tim
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