ON THE PORCH
It’s always a fun time of year when we get to tell the stories of each Mary Persons graduating class. Each class has its own unique characters and achievements, and the class of 2023 is no different.
When we asked MP counselor Teresa Roller what made this year’s class unique, she didn’t hesitate before pointing out there were 8 sets of twins in this year’s senior class and even a set of triplets. Wow! That’s a lot of duplicates.
Our community editor Diane Glidewell had the privilege of interviewing those triplets, Jackson, Claire and Carter Campbell. Her profile of them, and many more seniors, can be found in our 20-page graduation section in this week’s Reporter. I heard a lot of laughter as the Campbell triplets talked with Diane in her office. After they left, their dad, our own terrific sports photographer Russ Campbell, texted me.
“FYI, apparently 2 of my kids said we held them back in kindergarten because the other one was illiterate,” texted Russ. “That was not the case. They were preemies and tiny.” I assured Russ we would not print such defamatory material that his children were using to mock the other. I literally laughed out loud at that one. And now I’ve been made a liar. It was too good not to share.
Triplets seem like fun, and apparently, they do have fun, because they’re all going to Athens together in the fall, albeit for different schools.
With graduation here, I’ve been thinking a lot about young Monroe Countians and this current generation moving into adulthood. That was especially true Saturday when I photographed the Mary Persons alumni soccer game where my son was participating. Former MP player and current girls coach Jacob Haygood organized the event, which was very well attended with 56 alums. It really took me back to see and photograph men and women whom I had covered when they were teenagers 10-15 years ago.
Dent Miller. Clayton Carter. Reece Clark. Beau Watson. I photographed these guys when they were carefree kids. Now here they were years later, with wives, sometimes kids, mortgages, jobs, receding hairlines and sometimes added girth. They had weathered challenges. They had endured setbacks. Some didn’t seem as cocky as they were in high school. Life does that to you, doesn’t it? They seemed wiser. Humbler. And most were slower to the ball than I remembered them. But then so am I.
Age is a universal and humbling process that no one escapes. You might say that all of life, with its challenges and hardships, is designed to make us look up to God, look with love at one another, and admit we don’t have all the answers. We come into the world dependent upon our mothers, unable to provide for ourselves and with very limited capacity to do anything. We grow into adults who like to think we can do anything we want. And then age and health force us back to a place of dependence.
Isn’t it interesting, therefore, what happened when the Jewish religious leaders caught a woman in the very act of adultery in the gospel of John? They brought her to Jesus hoping to trap him into doing something they can use against him.
“The law of Moses says to stone her,” they sneer. “What do you say?”
When Jesus stoops to the ground and begins writing in the dirt, they demand an answer.
“All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
What happened next? The Bible says her accusers slipped away one by one, starting with the oldest, until only Jesus and the shamed woman remained.
You see humans are not evolving. We have not changed for 2,000 years. Still today, the older we get, the more we realize that we aren’t really that great. The longer we live, the more we sin, and the more we know we need forgiveness. That’s why the oldest walked away first.
Every May, we hurl lots of wisdom and counsel at young people hoping they’ll live a good life, and maybe avoid some of the mistakes we have made. And that’s good. But even better is the knowledge that the God who rules the world has their days engraved on His hand. His purpose is to use the joys, the challenges, and the pain of life to lead them to direct their hopes, their dreams and yes their lives to the One who will never die. The longer I live, the more I know, He’s the One thing that we can all really count upon. I love to hear that young people are learning the same thing.
