We were amazed to discover a souvenir shop last summer that sold only refrigerator magnets. We occupied ourselves for quite a long time reading those with humorous sayings such as: “If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving isn’t for you” and “I find my short term memory isn’t what it used to be, also my short term memory isn’t what it used to be.” Eventually, we made a selection. We purchased a magnet that depicts a baby who is bald, smiling though toothless, and stylishly equipped with large sunglasses and a twinkling tiara. The caption reads: “You’re the bomb.”
Now, in case you haven’t heard that particular slang phrase, being “the bomb” means nothing derogatory. On the contrary, to be called “the bomb” is highly complimentary. It means you are wondrous, awesome and inspiring.
Actually, we’ve never been called “the bomb,” but one can always aspire to greatness. The magnet on our fridge offers daily inducement to consider how any of us might become more wondrous, awesome and inspiring. For the baby on our magnet, sunglasses, a tiara and a toothless grin sealed the status of that sort of greatness. But for most of us, simple external decoration probably isn’t enough to achieve greatness. What would it take? How would it look?
Greatness comes in a host of forms, doesn’t it? Across the years we’ve actually witnessed unexpected greatness again and again and again. We’ve witnessed the greatness of self-sacrifice, in firefighters who run into the flames as everyone else runs out, in mothers who work and pray for their children whose futures they value more than their own. We’ve witnessed the greatness of compassion, in health care workers whose rigorous training is employed to heal and restore the sick, in friends who open their arms to hold and comfort a friend who grieves. We’ve witnessed the greatness of hope, in teachers who spy talent in young lives and encourage its flowering, in the generosity of donors whose dreams to bring change have amply funded countless efforts for good.
Do we have the capacity for real greatness, too? Maybe we all have it, even if we fail to recognize it. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote these words: “God blows through you since time began, And when your heart glows warm and remains true, He works his plan.”
Maybe true human greatness comes into being when the spirit of God, blowing into and through every life, is allowed to warm our hearts, polish away our imperfections, make us faithful, and inspire us to live lives that bear glimmers of self-sacrifice, compassion and hope.
We can all aspire to greatness on that model. What an extraordinary way to demonstrate that we’re the bomb!