Greatness via Goodness

My father is the greatest man I have ever known, though I do not believe greatness ever crossed his mind.

He simply got up every day and focused on being a good man, which for him meant being a good father, a good husband, a good soldier, a good employee, a good boss, a good volunteer, a good citizen, a good disciple, a good philanthropist, and a good mentor.

They say no man is a hero to his butler, because the butler sees what happens behind closed doors. Well, I was there, and I can tell you: Dad is a hero, a great man. No flash-in-the-pan greatness could be greater than Dad's everyday-for-decades goodness, and no one-hit-wonder could be more wonderful than knowing you could count on him in a pinch.

Perhaps greatness is like humility: we can arrive only indirectly.