Stand up. Stand firm. Stand out.

Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in.

Robert Frost

This Sunday during church, I leaned over to my husband and whispered, “That speaker was a student in the first 8^th grade English class I ever taught.”

“You did good,” he whispered back.

“No. She did,” I replied. The speaker and her husband have lived in my neighborhood for more than 20 years. Now their house is filled with young grandchildren. (And yes, I know how old that makes me!) Those years of maturity which students reach after they leave public school is something most teachers aren’t lucky enough to get to see. In this time of what seems to be universal, low-grade rage which permeates so many levels of society, it’s reassuring to have such glimpses of hope.

When we had climbed into the car, ready to head for church, my brother who lives us was teasing me how many Sundays I had spent doing exactly the same thing. He’s a smart guy, and he started totaling in his head from when he was little and our family drove through Sacramento, California, to the Fair Oaks Latter-Day Saint Branch—so small we met in the Elks Lodge–until this year when I turned 77. It was a remarkably large number of Sundays.

But watching my friend at the pulpit, I was reminded that I am surrounded by so many good people  doing good things. For instance, for a number of years, every spring if I happen to drop by the home of a friend who is a well-known Utah politician, the small formal living room at the front of her house is filled with UPS, FED EX, and Amazon boxes, sometimes dozens of them. While she is out making policy and spear-heading important improvements for her community, her husband is quietly gearing up for another year of Little League baseball.

As long as I have known him, he has organized and led the program in their area which gives kids a chance to learn the skills and relish the competition with dozens of baseball teams in their community. He schedules the games, lines up umpires, trains the volunteer coaches, handles the disputes which are inevitable in any sports program, and provides hundreds of families with afternoon adventures they will never forget. I asked him once why he dedicated so much volunteer time to give kids and their families this opportunity. All he said was, “Little League saved me when I was a kid. I want to be sure that every kid who wants or, like me, needs to participate has a place to play.”  

Not too long ago, I was visiting an elementary school faculty meeting when a teacher came up to me and whispered, “Can you help me. My colleagues and I need about 100 heavy duty 3-ring binders for a project with our 5^th graders (I hope that’s the accurate age!). She had applied for an online grant, but had been turned down, so I contacted the Jordan Education Foundation about her request. Less than 24 hours later, they called her back and went to work.

The Foundation is made up of local business and community leaders who also volunteer hundreds of hours to raise funds and supply the needs of public-school students in our area. Last year, among many other donations, they rounded up and delivered more than 300 beds for school children and their families who were sleeping on the floor. Last week they presented a clarinet to a grade-school student who had lost his mother the day after Christmas and was moving away from the Majestic Arts program in which he had been a participant. Though he is losing his many friends and classmates, these volunteers helped soften the blow so that he will be able to continue studying the music he loves.

I hear a good deal about the chaos and trouble around the world from my husband and my brother—both of whom love international news and politics. And social media feeds are filled with flashy stories about entertainers, the rich and famous, and the raucous voices of the disenchanted—many of them with the intent of simply drawing attention to their self-serving purposes. From that point of view, it’s easy to lose heart about the future. That’s why it’s both a relief and a blessing to turn off the shouting and spend a little time looking around my neighborhood and yours. I see good people who are willing to stand up, stand firm, and stand out. They don’t seem to notice or worry about making news: they’re too intent on making the world better.