Reflections on the Stone the Builders Rejected

For the past few years I have struggled with my sense of my own mortality.

I was angry that I would not “live forever,” make my “mark” on history, lay the “cornerstone” of some magnificent edifice, and somehow be “immortal” in the stories passed from generation to generation.

I have made my peace with this struggle.

I am okay accepting that, like all other life, I am going to die and my energy will be disbursed, ultimately everywhere for all time. “I” will be star stuff in unimaginable worlds in distant galaxies in the cosmic future.

I can accept that my greatest accomplishments have been quiet:

• mentoring students as they journey on their own paths through the darkness and sunlight;

• supporting young combat veterans as they return from America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as they struggle with their own guilt, confusion, and reintegration;

• and working with my regrets, trying to make this world a more peaceful and fairer place for more people.

I am content that, with what little I have done, I have pushed in the right direction, and that’s all I could ever do.

The stone the builders rejected is now the cornerstone on which the sum of my life rests.