COLUMN: Living the life you were meant to live
During a recent radio interview, I was asked if I was living the life I was meant to live. What a poignant and humbling question! To answer, I found myself asking yet another question: “What is the life I am meant to live?”
Though the interview has passed, I continue to reflect upon these questions. Beyond daily routines – paying the mortgage, pursuing a career, getting an education – I believe we all have a responsibility to serve and uplift one another. Our nation, one of freedom and opportunity, is great because of our sense of community. From families to neighborhoods and from cities to regions, we are a nation of citizens who care about one another. Helping others is part of the life we are all meant to live.
A fifth-grader once gave me a wise definition of democracy that is better than any I’ve read in a textbook or dictionary: “The people rule, so everybody’s got to do something.” If we want to continue to improve ourselves and help those around us, we must do our part; we must do something.
Thanksgiving is a time for volunteering, helping and giving. Utah, per capita, has the most volunteers of any state in our country. Many of you will volunteer this holiday season, and many more of you will donate to charities. This is a tribute to our commitment to treat our fellowman with compassion. It exemplifies our unified desire to improve the quality of life for all Utahns. I commend our citizens who give of themselves. Whether by reading with a child, providing foster care, or assisting the elderly, Utahns are finding ways, great and small, to extend a helping hand.
At this time of year, we pause to give thanks for family, friends and the bounties of life we enjoy. I am especially grateful for the men and women of the armed forces and their families who are making a heroic sacrifice by answering the call of duty both at home and abroad. As I’ve greeted returning troops this year, I have not only met young adults, but also parents and grandparents who have sacrificed much to defend our freedoms. I hope we will all be particularly mindful of these heroic citizens this Thanksgiving.
Each of us has much to be grateful for this year, and I urge you to use this wonderful season to reflect, to ponder, to remember and to give. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as your governor, and I vow to continue serving the citizens of this great state until the end of my term.
May you all share a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving with those you love and continue to discover and live the life you were meant to live.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Governor Olene S. Walker