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Barbara Bush

Audio / Produced by The High Calling

Transcript

Former First Lady Barbara Bush tells of eating in a restaurant when a woman interrupted her meal. The woman said, "Aren't you somebody? I know that I know you." While Mrs. Bush waited, the woman ran through a litany of possibilities, from teacher to local store clerk.

As the woman rambled, Mrs. Bush occasionally smiled and nodded. At last the woman left muttering, "I thought she was somebody."

I love Barbara Bush's response—her calm while her dinner cooled. That exemplifies a truth far more important than fame—namely, that everybody is somebody.

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. A person doesn't have to be famous to merit our respect; the goal is to love our neighbor . . . and our neighbor is anybody . . . in the high calling of our daily work.

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

(Matt. 22:37-39)