Whatever You Are--Be a Good One

Somewhere fairly early in his school career, my middle child was assigned a president report on Abraham Lincoln.  He was a bit of a procrastinator when it came to school reports, and I remember well the frenzied night before the report was due--while he was feverishly working on the report, I was trying to make a stovepipe hat out of black construction paper (which isn't as easy as you might think).  The next day he delivered his report dressed as Abraham Lincoln, and life moved on.  But for years afterwards, whenever he got to choose his own topic for a report, he prudently chose Abraham Lincoln.  So when he graduated from high school, I got this plaque for his wall:

I was thinking about Lincoln's words today when we left Cancer Care of Western New York after my husband's prostate cancer treatment consultation.  I have long admired people who are good at what they do, and everyone we met with during our two-hour visit today was "a good one."  From the patient advocate who had to ask personal questions and explain nitty gritty details and did so with both warmth and humor to the woman in billing who had already called our insurance company and was able to answer questions we didn't even know to ask, everyone was professional, efficient, and kinder than necessary (three more traits I admire).  Although our heads were spinning and hearts were thumping a little when we left, we felt as though we were in good, caring, competent hands.  I hope Lincoln's words stay with my middle son and my other two children because "being a good one" matters.