Take Two: A Tribute

My grandfather passed on last Monday. I was unable to attend the proceedings at home but forwarded the following message to be read at the service. He is an inspiration to me in a lot of ways. He kept me grounded with the constant reminder that simple is best, family and friends are the most important touchstones of our lives, and one cookie is never enough. I post this to keep a copy for my own record and to share it with our family and friends who were unable to attend the service. Hope you'll join me in having two cookies in his memory. Love to you all.

Address for Celebration of Life
for Carl Elmer Baxter
1924.03.30 ~ 2015.09.07

2015.09.12 14:00 (PDT), Kennewick, WA

It's not an easy thing for me to be unable to join you today. However, I rest assured in the happy fact that so many have joined their hearts together in celebrating Carl Elmer Baxter, my grandfather and a great teacher of mine on this path of discovery we call life. My hope is that these words I have cobbled together will, in some small measure, express to you how much I have learned from him.

My grandfather was a simple man. I say this with utmost certainty and without the least disrespect. His simplicity was evident in his favorites: He was a plain eater who did not venture far outside the realm of meat and potatoes. He had a few basic hobbies. He liked to listen to old music and held everything newer than the mid-1960s in great contempt--noise, he would say, dismissively. He liked to watch the news and a few game shows on television. He was forever interested in the weather and and had fancy thermometers and the like. And he would sit reading the newspaper, cover to cover, nearly every day.

My grandfather was a simple man. He believed in the simple virtues of hard work, honesty, and fidelity to one's family and friends. He liked to chat about simple things: if you would but lend him your ear, you would be treated to an account of his time overseas. He would beam with pride as he recounted stories with such vivid specifics it makes me wonder why I cannot seem to recall my own time overseas with such compelling detail. He was fiercely proud of his family. His children were the apples of his eye. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren were, for him, his pride and joy.

My grandfather has such faith in us, it was almost a religious sort of fervor. Even when things weren't going 100 percent to plan, he would always tell us how smart we were, how creative, and how deserving we were of every success. When it came time for me to move to Japan for work, he was so proud. When I took my current job at a university here, he was so pleased to receive my business card and took the opportunity to share it with anyone who knew me. I have to admit I was a little embarrassed by such exuberance, but I realize now that I needn't have been.

My grandfather was a simple man. And his life was a testament to the importance of simple virtues and the simple pleasures of life. Who among us cannot benefit from the value of a day's hard work or honesty? Who among us does not believe in the importance of loyalty to one's family? I must admit there was a time when such simple things seemed so mundane; I was certain I had to do great things--pursue great achievements--to find happiness.

I can tell you with conviction now that my grandfather had it right: simplicity is the true constant in life. It is enough to do an honest day's work. It is enough to talk about simple things with people who will listen to you. The greatest pleasure in life comes from the simplest of things: sitting down to a home-cooked meal, going out for a walk in nature, or a trip someplace. And family and friends and the loyalty you show to them are the greatest joy. The moments and days we have with them are the real treasures of life. Not yesterdays, nor the promise of tomorrows to come. Today. Right now.

Funerals can be such sad affairs. We get so caught up in appearances: the apparent death and parting from a loved one. But earthly death is just that: an appearance. My grandfather had faith in the One who created him and has not really gone. He lives on. We simply cannot see him with our earthly vision.

I look at it this way: I'm unable to join you today but send this message to you from across time and space, across the miles and the minutes from where I wrote these words to where you are sitting, listening to them. You cannot see me, nor I you, and we seem so separate. But really, we aren't so far away from one another. It's the same way with where Grandpa is in relation to all of us. Sure, we cannot see him, but that doesn't mean that he's gone. He's with us. We need only close our eyes and bring him to mind. We need only join our hearts in prayer and there he is, sure as I am across the globe. I look forward to the day when I will see him again with my own eyes. I pray that such hope unites us all.

And so I thank my grandfather most sincerely, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you, Grandpa, for teaching me the paramount nature of the simple things. Thank you for believing in me with such unwavering conviction even when I could not. And thank you for teaching me that one cookie is never, ever enough. I hope that those of you who have gathered today to celebrate my Grandpa Carl will take two cookies in his honor. You can be sure I will today. I send you my love and wishes for delicious cookies. Take two.