The Power Of One

“I am only one, but still I am one.

I cannot do everything, but still I can do something;

and because I cannot do everything,

I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”

~Helen Keller

My dad, Joe Gatton, was only 50 years old when he died in a trucking accident three days after Christmas in 2006.

A lot of folks knew and loved my dad. Everywhere we went – even out of state – he always seemed to run into someone he knew. When he died, people stood in line for more than two hours at the visitation. And when we buried him on a cold, rainy New Year’s Eve, people showed up in droves at his funeral to pay respects to one single man who clearly touched the lives of thousands.

My dad was an avid Boy Scout leader. He was Scoutmaster of Troop 174 in Troutman for years before moving on to train Scout leaders. At a district Boy Scout banquet shortly after he died, a man said something about my dad that resonated with me. In a nutshell, he said that as a Boy Scout leader, my dad had impacted the lives of a vast number of boys in the Scouts program. But once he started training leaders, he had a direct impact on fewer people because, obviously, the number of leaders pales in comparison to the number of Scouts.

Then, the lesson: The man asked any Boy Scout leader who had taken a leadership training course under my dad to stand. And several people stood. Then he asked every Boy Scout who had been instructed by one or more of those leaders to stand. And almost every person in the room rose to their feet.

And that’s when it began to hit me – my dad touched the lives of countless people by touching the lives of a relative few. He lit one candle that went out and lit two that went out and lit five that went out and lit ten. And the number grew and grew and grew. But it all started with one single man. It’s not that he was any better, any more powerful, or any more righteous than anyone else. He just did what was his to do. That’s all.

I’ve come to realize in the past year that of all the traits my dad passed down to me, and of every lesson I learned from him while he was alive, perhaps the best thing he gave me – the greatest lesson he taught me – came after he was already gone.

The lesson is summed up beautifully in the words of Helen Keller, blind and deaf, who said: “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”

The name of this blog bears my name – my father’s name – but that’s not because I am any better, any more powerful, or any more righteous than any other single person on this planet or in our community. I am simply one person, doing what’s mine to do. Yet, the greatest lesson I ever learned from the greatest man I ever knew is the power of that number.