Two things showed up on my computer this morning that caught my eye. First, an article on the Axios site that showed the results of two recent polls, suggesting that Americans are starting to believe we’re finally on the right track, in spite of relentless negative coverage by much, if not most, of the news media. As I often tell people, America isn’t perfect, but we’re not done yet.
The poll was especially interesting because over the weekend, I’d been involved in a Facebook back-and-forth with a friend of mine whose views on politics, religion, even personal conduct are in many ways directly opposed to mine. (Yes, the question then begs itself, Why are you friends with this guy?) I thought that maybe I might be getting him to see past the propaganda and scorn he sometimes takes part in online and dig a little deeper. One of his rants was about the Christian religion. I won’t repeat what he posted here, but in response I invited him to join us at Long Lake Lutheran Church yesterday. He never showed. Maybe, though, I’ll run into him this week and we can chat–in person, an old-fashioned form of personal connection that is almost always more courteous than what we see online these days.
The second thing hit home even more than the poll, though. It’s a story from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s weekday newsletter, to which I subscribe. (It’s free, by the way.) Every Monday, Arnold publishes his “Monday Motivation.” This week’s was about a member of his Pump Club who recently passed away at the age of 100. I’ll let Arnold tell the story from here:
| Monday Motivation |
| Recently, we lost a member of our village, and I wanted to share his story because he inspired the hell out of me. And I know he’ll light a fire in many of you. |
| Nick Hope was, as far as I know, the oldest member of the Pump App. |
| What I know for sure is that Nick is the only person who has ever asked me for tips to help him achieve his goal of doing a pull-up again to celebrate his 100th birthday. |
| Here is one of the updates he sent me of his training, because if this doesn’t inspire you, nothing will: Nick Hope training at 100. |
| Nick embodied my vision for all of you: he trained until the very end. |
| But his non-stop training wasn’t what made Nick a great inspiration. |
| Nick was born in 1924 in Ukraine. He survived two genocides, under two different brutal dictators. |
| In 1933, he lost his brothers to the Holomodor, Stalin’s disastrous famine that led to the death of millions of Ukrainians. Most of the world has declared it a genocide. |
| After surviving that nightmare, several years later, he was forced into labor at a munitions factory under Hitler’s regime. He was accused of sabotage and sent to Dachau and enslaved by the Nazi regime for the remainder of the war. |
| Eventually, he was liberated by American forces. After the war, Nick came face to face with an SS officer who had beaten him with a whip until he nearly died. He shook his hand and offered his forgiveness. Think about that. This man survived two of the biggest nightmares of all of human history, and he offered his tormentors a handshake. It is no wonder his last name is Hope. Nick came to America and lived a fantastic life, spreading positivity everywhere he went. I feel unbelievably lucky that he became a member of our little village when he was a “young” 99 year old guy so that he could inspire all of us for a couple of years. His son, George, has told us he will continue to spread Nick’s positivity in the village, and my thoughts are with George and the whole Hope family. Nick is not gone. As you can see, he lives on in his children. But he also lives on in each of us that he touched in his incredible life. Nick Hope showed all of us that we can choose positivity. In the darkness, he showed us that we, too, can find the light. In our despair, there is always hope. |
I looked around for more information about Nick, and found this moving story by the CBS affiliate in Sacramento: What Hope can do. After reading that, I knew that the story of Nick Hope was more than just about one elderly guy showing the rest of us not-quite-as-elderly guys how to stay active and positive into our second century. His story truly exemplifies virtually all of the Five Tenets of Taekwondo:
Nick and his wife, also a Holocaust survivor, settled in northern California in the early 1960s. He became one of the Napa Valley’s most respected builders and didn’t retire till he was 97.
That’s right: Ninety-seven.
Think about that for a minute. Here’s a guy who as a child was nearly starved to death by one ruthless dictator, and then as a teenager was forced into slave labor by another. Yet, in spite of all that, he survived. Not only did he survive, he thrived, and he was showing all of us how to live life to the fullest, right to the end, into his second century. Nick Hope, born in occupied Ukraine in 1924, showed how to live a life of dignity, faith and honor, even in the face of unspeakable horror.
Nick truly gave every one of us hope.
A Strenuous Writer's Life 