"It Was the Best of Times..."

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities

I read this book as a Freshman in High School. I remember only bits and pieces of the over all story and I don't remember the paper that I must have written at all. What I do remember and have for most of my life is the opening paragraph. This has to be one of the best opening paragraphs ever written. After all, it caught the attention of a fourteen year old and held it for mumbles plus years.

My week was the best of times and not the rest of the quote. There were plenty of challenges from sheriff visits to tales of suicide. Reasonable accommodation requests for children with genetic illnesses that required bone marrow transplants and an HVAC system that was on the brink of failure which would have stopped A/C for over one hundred units housing families in the desert heat. I normally don't deal with the day-to-day operations of on-site management. I can do it, but my normal life is on the corporate side which is an "above the fray" existence. It is good to get back into the fray. It is good to remember what the true purpose of our business is. Our purpose is to provide safe and decent housing to an under served population.

I know that it is easy to look at our customers and see only the worst. To look at them and think that it is good money going after bad. I know plenty of people who look upon "affordable housing" customers in that manner. I struggle to not do it myself during moments of utter and complete frustration with the lies and the intransigence. For me, the bottom line comes from my faith which is not based on any specific church at all. It is Christ centered and I refuse to call myself a "Christian" because in today's world that label has been perverted to one of judgmental hatred of "other". It is no longer a label or teaching that looks to the example of Christ but seems more like the Pharisees of old whom Christ taught against. Christ was inclusive of the "others" of his time and chastised those leaders who were not. And what would He think of our religious leaders now? Well, we all have to be the judge and jury for our own souls, don't we?

"It was the best of times," because I remembered the true reason for my work. It isn't just to make money and be a consumer. It is to serve those who are outcasts; to fight for those who do not have a voice. It is to be a servant leader in a world and a country that appears to have sold its soul to the highest bidder.

"And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all." Mark 10:44

I am hopeful that before our country is destroyed by our own Pharisees that they remember the teachings of Christ. And if their acclaimed Christianity doesn't teach them to be a servant leader, then perhaps each needs to re-read A Tale of Two Cities. It is through Sydney Carton's self-sacrifice that he finally redeems himself and his wasted life. It is his death, his Christ like sacrifice, albeit for the love of a woman rather than humanity as a whole, that redeems him. His final thought a testament against those who lead and do not serve.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."