The Four Seasons of Snow

We live in a time when rankings and lists of nearly every known thing are thrown at us every day.  Some are significant, such as “Man and Woman of the Year”.  Others are shallow promotional ploys.  In either case, I rarely agree with the results.  But, with this article, I’m going to join this chorus of fanfare by listing five of the greatest people who have ever lived…in descending order, with the greatest at the end.  Each of these people is represented in a picture somewhere in my office as a reminder to me of the sacrifice that it takes to achieve great things.

Galileo – I am fascinated by the interplay between science and religion.  While I believe in God, spirituality, and overall the intelligent design of our universe, I am deeply troubled by organized religion’s attempts throughout history to thwart the most obvious things out of the fear those things would undermine religion.  Galileo was imprisoned for his belief that the Earth orbited the sun, and not the other way around.  But his persistence opened many people’s eyes, and the Renaissance was born.  Science could live alongside religion.  As a result, I believe Galileo is the father and enabler of all modern science. But he is not the first on my list.

Charles Darwin – enabled by Galileo’s sacrifices, Charles Darwin pieced together a theory upon which most of our modern understanding of the Earth is built.  I believe he is an enabler of the intelligent design school of thought, not an inhibitor of it.  Creation is all the more glorious when viewed through the lenses he developed. But he is not the first on my list.  

Martin Luther King – Dr. King gave hope to an entire race of people.  But perhaps his greatest gift to mankind was not serving those who were discriminated against, but teaching those who discriminated against that race that there was a better way to live.  Sometimes it is not the person discriminated against who is the loser.  Sometimes it is the person who discriminates who is missing the most in life. Dr. King gave his life for this cause.  But he is not the first on my list.

Abraham Lincoln – President Lincoln gave his life for the cause of a United States, and he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, thereby disallowing slavery within the nation that would soon become the world leader in nearly every facet of life.  President Lincoln suffered many, many failures in his life, and he suffered from acute depression.  As a result, his life was not easy, the decisions he made were not easy, and he was despised and hated by millions and millions of people.  His writings are among the most poetic and beautiful that I have ever read, and beyond what he accomplished socially, I believe he is one of the greatest writers ever. But he is not the first on my list.

The greatest person – to me – who ever lived is my father, Fredrick Darwin Snow.  He has not won any great

Dad and my stepmom, Judy

battles, he did not abolish slavery, he is not a great scientist, and he is not a billionaire, millionaire, or noted philanthropist.  But for an eight-year old boy who was about ready to go down a certain road of suffering and failure, my dad, through tremendous persistence, heartache, and pain, performed a miracle.  My mother was VERY young, and she was (and still is) VERY beautiful.  She caught the eye of our Lutheran minister, and he took advantage of the situation, and in the process, manipulated a young woman for his own conquest.  In the process, he created emotional havoc for my mother, havoc that took her many years to overcome.   My parents split, and my younger brother and I went to live with my mother, as was the case in 99% of all custody situations in the 1960’s.  The minister was quite an evil dude, guilty of abuse of both his wife and his children (he had five), and prone to alcohol and drugs.  He was going to abandon his family and take my mother and my brother and I far away.  In an era when fathers never got custody of children, my father willed his way towards that very outcome.  And he did gain custody of us after a long and arduous fight.  My mother eventually got rid of the louse, and she met and married a very fine gentleman.  She and I have never been closer than we are today, and she has been the best grandma that my

My Mother and I, 1967'ish

kids could ever have.  My father met a wonderful lady who also had two children (she also helped me forgive and love my own mother).  They married and had another, so a conglomerate of five boys – his, hers, and ours – made their way to the current day, led by a dad who didn’t give up on any of us.  And there are a lot more stories involving the other boys, believe me.  There was just not one sacrifice, but many. 

My father is a kind spirit.  He leaves his mark on people by being kind to them, helping them, and treating them fairly.  His handling of elderly people is almost magical.  Such accomplishments aren’t  always immediately rewarded, as we all know.  But neither were Lincoln’s, King’s, Galileo’s, nor Darwin’s.  I hope my dad realizes all the suffering he helped us all avoid, and I hope he never worries about not being a millionaire.  I hope that I can touch half as many people as he.  And I hope that he realizes that he is a giant among men, for the greatest men are those who can make the sacrifice and forego the immediate profit.  

Way to go Dad. Have a great week.