I Was Thinking... Average

One definition of average is — “the worst of the best and the best of the worst.” If an “A” is at the top and an “F” at the bottom, then a “C” should be average. Yet few parents hope their children will turn out to be average. Schools honor students on the “A” and “B” honor rolls but those that get “Cs” don’t get recognized for just being average.
Average is seldom the goal most people strive to achieve, yet is average all that bad?
Sports, the entertainment industry, and business do a very good job of elevating and promoting those that are above average. Major sports stars are very well compensated for their success. They also appear on TV commercials and become the face of endorsed products. Entertainment celebrities demand huge salaries and are seen on magazine covers and their lives are covered by the media. Business leaders are also well rewarded monetarily. Their success draws others to them for advice and their political influence is much greater than the average voter.
Most of the people I know won’t end up as a guest on a late-night talk show, be on the cover of a magazine or earn a multi-million-dollar salary. They are average.
But they are the ones who keep the country going. They are the ones who drive thousands of miles delivering merchandise for all of us. They build buildings, cook and serve meals in restaurants and cafes. They teach our children, plow our roads, and collect our garbage. These average people grow our food, pick our crops, and process our meat. They care for people in hospitals and nursing homes.
Some have college degrees and work in offices. Others get dirty because they fix our furnaces, unclog our pipes, and repair our cars. But they are more than just workers.
These same average people coach the little league teams, deliver meals on wheels, and ring bells for the Salvation Army. They support their church, are Scout leaders, and belong to civic groups. They pay their taxes, support their schools, and pick up trash in ditches. The thing they all have in common is they consider themselves average people.
But you never know when one of these average types becomes more.
This man was born to an average family. His mother was a nurse, and his father ran a general store. He grew up in a town of about 600 people and attended the local school. He played basketball and joined the local FFA chapter.As a teen, he used an acre of land given to him to plant, raise and sell peanuts.
He eventually went to a local college and joined ROTC. He later received an appointment to the Naval Academy. He was a good student but was seen as reserved and quiet and graduated 60th out of 821. He served in the navy from 1946 to 1953 when he left to take over the family business after his father died.
After debt settlements and division of his father’s estate among its heirs, he inherited comparatively little. For a year, he and his wife, and their three sons lived in public housing. In 1962 he felt a need to step up and have a greater influence by entering politics. He won a state senate seat and served two terms. He ran for governor in 1966 and lost but ran again in 1970 and won.
He described his ideology as “Conservative, moderate, liberal and middle-of-the-road...” But this nationally unknown governor had higher aspirations and ran for and won the Presidency in 1976.
Jimmy Carter was probably one of the least dynamic leaders we ever had but accomplished more than most. He brokered a peace deal between Israel and Egypt, created the Department of Education, regulated strip mining and won the Nobel Peace Prize. His honesty, integrity and plain speaking made him appear more average than most national leaders. Even after leaving office, he didn’t retire to write his memoirs, he went back to work and spent years supporting and working on Habitat for Humanity housing.
From very humble beginnings, he didn’t let average define what possibilities there were.
Did You Ever Wonder? — Why do people turn down the radio in the car when looking for an address?