Reminded at Mount Rushmore

July 11, 2011

    I hope your summer is unfolding well! For me, the intensity of fall/winter/spring is unrelenting: I fly 150,000+ miles during those seasons maintaining my contact with the Master’s Program groups I lead across the country. But, summer is different; my work for Master’s is closer to home, and allows me some catch-up time with family. I’m reconnecting with Cheri this week…
    Road trip! We’re in the Dakotas – North and South – while we check-off one of her Bucket List highlights. We spent the last couple of days around Mt. Rushmore…
    For most Americans, the last (only?) time they saw Rushmore was in National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Shown for less than a minute in the 124 minute production, the mountain sculpture is an American icon, but when we were there – on a Saturday, middle of summer – there was no congestion, no lines. At some moments, it felt like it was just us and the four men on the mountain…
    It’s magnificent. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln (left to right, on the mountain) will still be looking over the Black Hills when Jesus returns.
    First conceived by Doane Robinson – a historian for the state of South Dakota – as a boost to tourism, it became a patriotic memorial when sculptor Gutzon Borglum was enticed to take on the task. Robinson’s idea was to sculpt famous figures from stone needles that stand in the Black Hills. Borglum was working for the Daughters of the Confederecy who were financing the carving of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson into Stone Mountain, in Georgia. He was two years into the project when he left it – in 1925 – to head to Mt. Rushmore( Stone Mountain completed 50 years later).
    It took 14 years to finish the majestic masterpiece at Rushmore. With artistic freedom, Borglum – son of Danish immigrants – chose the 1^st, 3^rd, 16^th and 26^th presidents to depict America’s greatness. Washington: birth. Jefferson: growth. Lincoln: preservation. Roosevelt: development. Their roles as leaders was far more than a placemark of history. They made a positive contribution to a country that was – and, remains – “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all…”
    There’s something about mountains – and great leaders – that inspires construction. “ …Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters – one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah…’” (Matthew 17:1-4.)
    Three great leaders: Moses: the Lawgiver. Elijah: the Prophet. Jesus: the Messiah. That was a threesome Peter wanted to memorialize… but Jesus told them to calm down, and keep it quiet. He wanted to remain under the radar…

    I was reminded at Mt. Rushmore how important it is to remember the people whose lives were invested selflessly, doing great things that benefited others more than themselves. It has me thinking: if I were to commission my own granite shrine, who are the four people whose faces I would carve into my history? Who are the men and women who have made a profound impact on my world – at their expense – whose contribution I need to never forget?
    As we drive through the Dakotas in the next few days, that’s the question on my mind. Next to it is the follow-up: am I living in a way that would put me in contention for remembrance in the lives of my family… and the people I serve as I live out my calling?
    Who will want me on their mountain? Who will want you on theirs?
   
Bob Shank