I was having dinner Saturday night with my friend Laura Baumgardner. We were reflecting on the end of a beautiful event - the annual Run for Respect in Pontiac, Illinois.
Laura and her long-time friend Beth Bradley Shelton started this event 11 years ago. The work they have done with their special needs students through this event - and through over 3 decades of working with them in their life skills class at Pontiac Township High School - has contributed to one of the most inclusive communities I've ever visited. Because of the work they do, kids in the Pontiac school system start hearing messages of inclusion in kindergarten, and they keep hearing them - and participating in them - until the day they graduate high school. It's a beautiful thing. When you leave something behind that you've built - Laura and Beth are retiring at the end of this year - there is naturally some worry about what will become of it. When you build something, no one on the planet will be able to tend to it with the same kind of care you poured into building it. I get it. And I get that it's easy to get stuck in protecting what we built at the expense of spending a lifetime celebrating the beauty of the building. Because beauty has momentum in Pontiac - and well beyond the borders of the town and the state of Illinois - that will never be undone. Even more, they have set in motion the seeds of a beauty that will never stop growing. Multiplying. The ever present reminders of evil in this world can blind us to the world that was designed to receive beauty. It is in our bloodlines to long for it, and to welcome it as a long lost friend when it comes into our lives. A beauty that we forever treasure. And share. Beauty has a momentum that evil can only dream of keeping up with. People in every state in this country have run for respect, and run on with the messages that the race has gently place upon our hearts. People on every continent in the world have done the same. These messages have become beliefs and practices and beliefs and practices treasured friendships. And a greater appreciation for the beauty of a collective one another. I think we all need to be reminded of that. Evil exists because it knows better than us the power and unstoppable force of beauty. It comes at us in cruel and ugly ways to distract us away from and to create internal doubt toward beauty's reach. Because we are the creators of beauty. We are its momentum. And one of the most beautiful things about beauty is once we have poured it into the world it never comes back. It just keeps going. Like a race that never ends. We must remember that. When the race itself DOES end, the beauty doesn't. Once we've offered it the world becomes a giant thank you note for the beauty we've offered. We must read that note often. Looking forward and not back. And be reminded that there is no greater offering each and every day than beauty. When we throw beauty into the world the world catches it as if receiving a long lost friend. And it forever treasures it.
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
February 2025
CategoriesAll Faith Fatherhood Life Mental Health Perserverance Running |