Morning Thoughts: January 15, 2018

I’ve always appreciated the rewards that come from hard work, honesty, and dedication more than those from accidental benefits. Take American citizenship for example. I did nothing to deserve it. I did, though, appreciate it enough to serve the country when asked to. Four years of your life pays back a tiny bit for all the benefits from undeserved luck. Or so it seems to me.

It can rankle to watch those I call “members of the lucky sperm club” prance around in their $5,000 suits or designer outfits, many having never served their country at all, enjoying their privilege while raining insults on the least of those among us. Many of them have never worked a day or sacrificed a moment to gain their position in our world. Good fortune: it favors individuals as well as countries.

Let me tell you about a woman I know. She wasn’t born in America. She hails from a city on the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. She came to this country on a visitor’s visa. She met a man from Texas and married him. They became neighbors of ours at the farm we own in rural Arkansas. We are proud to call her and her husband our friends.

He grew up living with his family, and three others, on one-fourth of the enclosed rear of a flatbed truck, traveling from harvest to harvest across the heartland of America, far from the gilded towers of Manhattan.

We were honored by helping her prepare "Green Card" papers that had to be delivered to Memphis early one morning. It was our further privilege to sponsor her. At the time, her husband worked until midnight each day, so we set our alarm and met them at the remote house of a woman who put the finishing touches on the paperwork for us to sign. Then, off they went toward Tennessee, with neither sleep nor rest.

The next evening, they came to our house, all smiles, with a small gift of thanks. Later, I was lucky enough to attend the ceremony in which she became an American citizen.

They’ve had their ups and downs since, but they have survived and raised two wonderful children, one of which is now almost halfway through a college education. Along the way, for a few years, they cared for four abandoned children, keeping them out of the foster care system until their parents took them back.

On special occasions, she treats us to the best tamales this side of Mexico City. He helps me keep some of our antique farm equipment running. When she’s not cooking, tending house, or working, she knits head coverings to donate to kids undergoing cancer treatment at St. Jude’s hospital in Memphis. We exchange gifts at Christmas and smiles and waves much more often.

Don’t ask us, if you would, whether we would choose her and her family, or the Trumps, as friends and neighbors.