Unknown Greatness(Bobby W. Lock) This story, just like life itself, begins with a birth. Not an extraordinary or unusual birth, just a plain, simple, twelve or so hours of labor birth to a healthy baby boy. For the most part, his life was as plain and ordinary as his birth. He grew up on a farm in a small town in the southern part of the United States, graduated from high school (not with honors, just a simple C to B average, though he could have done much better if he had tried), served in the military, married, had kids, divorced, remarried, worked most of the time, and did the best he could to provide for his family. He stayed in the same occupation most of the time (pest control), changed employers a few times, and planned on eventually starting his own business. His tastes were simple… he preferred plain coffee with milk and sugar over the fancy (and what he considered expensive) flavored coffees, mocha decaf latte, foam covered, espresso… .(I think you get the idea, although thanks to a gift card from his brother one Christmas he did develop a fondness for café mochas, but limited himself to one a week). He liked his food baked or fried, meat and vegetables, never tried sushi (he always said that if he wanted to eat raw fish he could catch a trout from the creek and chow down on the creek bank, and not have to pay a lot to do it), grabbed a burger for lunch while at work, loved bacon and eggs for breakfast, and could eat certain cereals a box at a time. The main thing that separated him from most average men was that instead of popping a cold beer after work he would have more coffee, either at a local coffee shop on the way home or in front of the television when he got home.

I suppose we could give this man a name….let’s call him Mark. As for me, I am the voice in Mark’s head….the little thought nagging at him most of his life, from somewhere deep in the back of his mind, telling him that he was meant for more than this simple life. Don’t get me wrong, Mark loved his life, wouldn’t take anything for it. He just always felt that somehow he was suppose to do something great, something that would make him stand out from the crowd. Most of the time Mark figured that his greatness would come through his children, who he swore would accomplish great things in their lives. He thought when that happened the little voice in his head (me) would go away.

What Mark never knew was that he achieved greatness many times in his life. He might have considered himself to be an ordinary, simple man, but many of the people Mark had encountered in his life knew better. He had changed peoples lives for the better, but there was more to come in his future. Here’s an example of the greatness Mark had done….when he was nineteen Mark was hanging out with a couple of guys he had met (he can’t remember their names, and neither can I), and they were partying. One of the guys called a prostitute that he knew. Mark learned that she was only sixteen. When she arrived the two guys did their thing with her then left to get more beer. Mark was watching television, the girl was laying under a blanket on the couch. She looked at Mark and asked if it was his turn. He pulled a chair up beside the couch, sat down, and started talking to her, asking her why she did what she did. She told him that she was on her own and needed the money (same old story), and Mark asked why didn’t she just get a job. He told her that it was not safe, especially for someone her age, to live the life she had. There were plenty of other ways she could make money, safer and legally. He asked where her parents, her family, were….why was she on her own at sixteen, asked questions about her life, a life that a farm boy from a loving family could not understand. They talked for a while….nothing more than talking, Mark never touched her except to shake her hand when he left after the two guys returned.

Here’s the part of the story that Mark never knew….his claim to fame so to speak. The next day the girl was thinking about what Mark had said to her, how he had treated her like a person….a real person, not a whore. She thought about the argument she had with her mom and dad a year ago, the argument that made her decide to leave home. She thought about the life she was leading and where it was most likely going. Then she said a prayer, packed her clothes, and instead of paying rent with the money she had made the day before, she used it to buy a bus ticket. A day and a half later she was in her home state, a few hours after that she arrived in her home town. She walked from the bus station to a nice neighborhood about five miles down the road, knocked on the door of one of the houses, and when the door opened she said, “Hi Mom. Can I come home?” The next week she went back to high school, graduated two years later, then went to college. After college she went to medical school. She became a surgeon, saved many lives during her career, and often thought of the man that had changed her life. She regretted that she did not know how to contact Mark….never even knew his last name….she wanted to thank him for changing her life, possibly saving it. She spoke of him often, had eventually told her parents about her life as a runaway, about Mark. While dating the man she eventually married she had told him the story. Later in life she would explain it to her children. Her story was told many times at the shelter for homeless and runaway girls that she volunteered at twice a week. Hearing about how she lived when she was sixteen, and how a small conversation with a stranger named Mark had changed her life made many young girls rethink their situation….some even returned home.

Mark….the creator of a surgeon….the inspiration for runaways to return to their families….the man who touched many lives with a simple conversation with a sixteen year old. Mark….the man who changed so many people for the better….never knew he was more than just a simple farm boy, former soldier, and pest control technician.

Now you are probably wondering how I, a voice in someone’s head, knows the things about Mark that he himself does not even know. It’s simple….the voices in everyone’s heads are connected. We are the force, the energy, that binds all living creatures together. If there is anything about you that you do not know, don’t worry….the voice in your head knows.

Sometimes Mark never even met the people he helped. One day he was driving down the road and saw a puppy that someone had thrown out of a car. You know the type of person…too sorry or lazy or worthless to find a home for an animal they can't keep, won’t even bother to take it to a shelter. Mark stopped and picked up the puppy, cute little thing, brown and black with big dark eyes. He wanted to take it home but the place he was renting at the time did not allow pets, so he took it to the nearest animal shelter. Mark knew there was a chance that the puppy would be put to sleep if the shelter could not find a home for it, but he figured it had a better chance there than it did on the roadside. A few days later someone came to the shelter and adopted the puppy. They took it to a training school where it was trained to be a seeing eye dog for the blind. After it’s training was complete, the puppy, now a dog, was given to the person’s blind aunt. Thanks to the dog, which she named Scruffy, she was able to lead a fairly normal life, go for walks, etc. Many times Scruffy prevented her from walking out in front of cars, found her shoes for her when she could not remember where she had left them, and even once woke her up when there was a burglar in her home late at night. She was able to call the police and they arrived before the burglar was able to get away. As it turned out the burglar was wanted for a long list of break-ins, and had even assaulted and almost killed someone who walked in on him one night while he was stealing their possessions.

Mark… the savior of abandoned puppies… the reason a blind lady was able to function normally. Mark… the man who led to the arrest and conviction of a wanted criminal… the husband and father who worked part time as a security guard for seven years, in addition to his full time job, and always wondered what it would be like to do something spectacular.

Remember how I said that all the voices in your heads are connected? How we are the energy that binds life together? We not only know what effects you have had on other people, but we also know the results of your actions that will happen in the future. Early one December, when Mark was in his late twenties, he was doing some Christmas shopping at the local mall. He had just enjoyed some lunch at the food court and was heading toward the toy store. He had often said that being a dad was a good way of being able to go to a toy store and not have people think that you were weird. Anyway, while walking through the mall he heard a lady calling out her son’s name. Several yards in the opposite direction he heard a little boy crying. Mark found the boy, asked him what was wrong, and the boy said that he lost his mommy. Mark said “I think I know where she is… follow me.” He led the child to the lady he had heard a few minutes earlier, and it was the little boy’s mother. What Mark did not know, and never will know, is that at the exact moment he was approaching the child so was another man… a man who unlike Mark did not care about other people. This man was a kidnapper, child molester, and murderer. He had been doing it for several years, and would continue for several more years before finally being caught, sent to trial, and sentenced to death by a jury of his peers. (Though to be honest they were not his peers, they were much better than him.) While waiting in prison for the sentence to be carried out, he would be attacked, stabbed in the chest, and killed by another prisoner. (Even among murders, rapists, and other criminals, child molesters are considered lowlife scum who do not deserve to live.) This man was approaching the little boy at the same time Mark was… Mark beat him to the boy by about three seconds. When the man saw Mark talking to the child he kept walking like he was just another holiday shopper.

The child grew up to live a productive life as a journalist. He married and had children of his own. One of his children will grow up to be President of the United States and pull the country out of one of the toughest times it will ever see. By a weird twist of fate… that no one involved will ever know… the future President’s campaign manager will be the grandson of the prisoner who killed the child molester.

Mark… protector of lost children, reuniting mother and child. Mark…unknowingly saving a life and as a result indirectly saving a country… worked seven days a week for years and often wished that he had gone to college and gotten a degree so that he could have done more with his life.

Let me tell you a little more about Mark… not the great things he did in his life, but just some things about him. After serving in the military, he bounced from job to job for a while before finally finding his place in the pest control industry. He married for the first time in his mid twenties, was married for a little over a decade, fathering three kids during that time. A few years after his first marriage ended, he met a wonderful lady that he soon married and will spend the rest of his life with. Three or four years after they got married his wife decided she wanted a career change and wanted to return to college. Mark encouraged her to do so, and did everything he could to help her. She worked all day and went to school in the evenings, coming home to a dinner that Mark had prepared. He would even cook on weekends so that she would have time to study. Mark considered what he did to help her just something normal…even though he was working two jobs and coming home at the end of the day to cook and do laundry. He thought his wife was the amazing one… working all day then going to class. Mark really thought she was amazing during a six month period that he was not at home. She was working, going to class, cooking, doing laundry, etc., all on her own.

Wondering why Mark was not at home for six months? A couple of years after his wife returned to college, Mark returned to the military as a reservist. About a year before his wife graduated from college his unit was called to active duty to serve overseas for a year. While halfway across the country from his home, during the time his military unit was training and preparing for mobilization, Mark discovered that he had some medical problems which prevented him from going overseas. At first Mark was upset because he thought that just maybe the trip overseas would be the great act that he had been waiting most of his life to do. He was transferred from his unit to the medical holdover unit (Med Hold) on the military base they were training at. Most of the soldiers in Med Hold were wounded warriors returning from overseas. Some of those soldiers could not function on a day to day level without some sort of assistance. In addition to going to doctor appointments, Mark spent a great deal of time helping these soldiers. He would go to the dining facility with them and carry their food tray, or for the ones that had difficulty getting to the dining facility, he would get them a to-go tray and take it to them. One evening he made a trip to the dining facility, which took about five minutes to walk to, brought a tray to a soldier, found out someone else needed a tray and went back. Upon returning he learned of two more wounded soldiers that needed dinner, and so on. By the time Mark had finished making trips to the dining facility for the people he considered some of the country’s greatest heroes, he realized that he had not eaten yet. He walked back to the dining facility for the sixth time that evening, only to discover that it had closed for the day.

Mark carried laundry to the laundry room for wounded soldiers… sometimes doing their laundry for them. Anything that a wounded warrior needed help with, Mark was willing to help. He was praised many times by his peers and superiors. He always thought that what he did was something that any soldier would do for another soldier, or that any human being would, or at least should, do for another human being. Some of the soldiers he helped became his friends, but there were others that Mark never knew anything about other than their name and rank. One of the soldiers that he did not get to know very well is the next amazing accomplishment I will tell you about.

This particular soldier was the type of person that had never really cared about anyone other than himself. He had joined the military to pay for college, not for any other reason. While serving overseas he had been wounded during an explosion and almost lost one of his feet. While in Med Hold, Mark had carried his food to him many times and had done his laundry on more than one occasion. He was discharged from the military after his wounds had healed and went on to college. He had always planned on becoming a lawyer so that he could make a lot of money, but he was so amazed and impressed by Mark’s selfless actions that he changed his education goals. Instead of going to college and then law school when he returned home from the military, he went to college and became a physical therapist. He got a job at a hospital on a military base near his home and worked with the seriously injured soldiers and their families. It turned out that he really enjoyed helping others, and especially helping soldiers with leg, feet, and back injuries learn to walk again. When any of his patients or coworkers would ask why he became a physical therapist, he would tell them about Mark.

Mark… friend to the wounded warriors, doing what he simply thought was the right thing to do. Mark… changed a young man’s life and attitude by bringing him a to-go tray… wished he could have gone overseas with his unit so that he could serve his country better and make a difference.

I could tell you about many other things Mark did or will do, whether he knows it or not, but I believe you understand now what type of person Mark is. He was right about his children doing great things… one will become a crime scene investigator and solve crimes that no one else can. One will become a world renowned writer, and the other will decide to take over the pest control business that Mark will eventually start and is in many, many ways just like his dad, if you know what I mean.

Remember I told you that the voices in your heads are connected? Mark will live to be almost ninety years old… he simply dies of old age. The moment that he passes away, a surgeon, a physical therapist, a journalist, and many other people will suddenly, and for no reason that they know or understand, feel sad… like they have just lost someone or something important to them.

Mark’s last words will be to tell his family that he loves them. His last thought is, “I wonder if I did enough during my life?”

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