The Right Tools

Wm. Nielsen, New Lenox, IL

Only one student shared the chapel space with me as we moved together in the changing light of morning. Five weeks before there had been six. Not too long ago I would have wondered what I was doing wrong that so many lost interest so quickly. Not anymore.

As we moved together through the daughters, I watched how gracefully, how purposefully, he moved. A giant of a man, built like a linebacker and slow of speech. I would have never guessed that he would be the one to embrace so completely all I had to share. He had the heart of a craftsman. And as we passed the time waiting for others to arrive, he spoke of his beloved harps. He is a harpmaker by trade, and he aspired to become in the world of harps, what Stradivarius became in the world of the violin. He spoke of how he came to know and follow that still small voice within. He spoke of how TCC quieted the din of the world. The noise that kept so many from hearing their own small voice. And he told me he realized there was no one thing that would make it all all right but, by God there were tools, and it was up to us to recognize and use them. And finally, we found ourselves silent in the stillness that followed, I knew with certainty the class had been for him.