Homecoming Reflections

I don't get back to Decatur much at this point in my life. I see family regularly at least three times / year, but two of those gatherings are not in my hometown. My adulthood's regular rhythm is in those visits, along with trips to Massachusetts twice a year for board meetings.

So coming back this weekend, for a homecoming game and to manage a few other errands, has been really neat. My high school classmates are army captains, practicing physician assistants on 12 hours shifts, PhD students, engineers creating car parts, successful artists, practicing lawyers, full time parents, shift workers, elementary school teachers, and so much more. Some have passed away, as well, and however much technology is irrevocably changing our society, I am thankful for these binding ties - especially for these people who came up with me through elementary, middle, and high school. There are only so many old friends like this that we get.

The band plays the same stand music, but in new stands over a field that looks different on every side now compared to my graduation over a decade ago. The student body is much larger - and growing - thanks to Decatur's success. But, some people - my middle school gym coach, the media clerk that's known me since preschool, the yearbook teacher - continue to enrich the lives of students and continuously build anew the community that birthed me. I look forward to the rest of the weekend's events.

It's in these places - the small communities where we all know each other, where reputations are built slowly and stories are told for decades - that we create the social bonds that nourish lives. I'm not a natural "social bonder" - so I'm so so so grateful to those that are - that have willed Decatur into the place it was and is, and who live out these secularly sacred words:

I pledge to be an active American
to show up for others
to govern my self
to help govern my community
I recommit myself to my country’s creed
to cherish liberty
as a responsibility

I pledge to serve
and to push my country:
when right, to be kept right;
when wrong, to be set right
Wherever my ancestors and I were born,
I claim America
and I pledge to live like a citizen

Oh and also - the Bulldogs won the game.