Sometime, in another lifetime when I was about 13 years old, an unusual thing happened. Our family attended a funeral together at the Brightwater Methodist Church when it was located on the east side of U.S. Highway 62. This was unusual because we seldom attended funerals as a family and my father almost never took off work for a funeral unless it was a family member. The deceased was not a family member, I remember that much, but I do not know who had died. What I do remember is we went to hear the individual who was speaking at the funeral. The speaker was a man named Williams who was blind and had taught school, probably at Brightwater, sometime during my father's youth.
This occasion was so profound that I remember most of the details of the day and remember Mr. Williams stressing the importance of one's good name and character. What really stuck in my mind, however, was how my father spoke about Mr. Williams and the importance of my sister Margaret and me meeting and hearing Mr. Williams. In spite of his physical limitations, Mr. Williams had an impact on almost everyone he met. To this day, a person's character and reputation are more important to me than their net worth. How a person obtains their wealth and how they use it for the common good is my primary assessment of another. Some of those l admire and respect most have never accumulated any wealth nor sought personal fame.
There seems to be something about one's passing on that creates a search of our memories and perhaps brings out events like meeting Mr. Williams that day and having him reinforce some of the values my parents were trying to teach at home. All of this came back to me this week when I read the obituary of a man I admire, applaud and yet barely knew. What I will regret is the loss of a distant friend who leaves behind a legacy that Mr. Williams would have gladly spoken about.
John David Swearingen will not soon be forgotten. He lives in the soul and spirit of the First United Methodist Church of Rogers and in the love of his family and all the friends, close and distant, that he encountered in his 94 years. John was frequently mentioned in our house, not because I knew him all that well, but because Dorothy knew him and the family. The influence of the family in all their activities will be John's living legacy to be admired and honored as an example of America's best gifts from one of the Greatest Generation's finest.
My observations came from only a few personal contacts and a lot of observations. We seldom think about how we come to know a person unless we have routine contact with them at work or at church or in our neighborhood. John did not stand out in a crowd because he was not a head taller than others. He stood out because he didn't go out of his way to be different. l didn't know John well enough to be sure, but my guess was he put GOD first, family second, and everything else a meaningful third.
This is not an attempt to make it sound like I knew John in some special way nor is it an attempt to rewrite his obituary. Whoever prepared his obituary knew John well and expressed what so many of those who knew him would want to say. Hopefully we will become more aware that we impact others in ways we don't realize and be better people because we have special God-given examples to emulate. It is important to live in such a manner that we will be remembered as contributing to society with a good name and desirable character attributes when we pass away.
We celebrate John's life with the family he left to carry on sharing the values he lived out every day. We reserve the right to silently mourn the passing of one who so steadfastly represented what we believe to be an example of America's gift to those who treasure personal values.
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Editor's note: Leo Lynch is an award-winning columnist. He is a native of Benton County and has deep roots in Northwest Arkansas. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Editorial on 07/01/2015