couick_mike
I’ve always heard, if you really want to make God laugh, tell him what your plans are.
My plans for this spring were to watch my beloved Gamecocks win another women’s basketball national championship, watch my baby daughter Alex graduate from high school, have my right shoulder’s torn rotator cuff repaired, and spend more time with my parents. I also wanted the electric cooperatives to work with the General Assembly on two important objectives: 1) meaningful governance reform of Santee Cooper and 2) deploying broadband (high-speed internet access) to our rural communities.
An older acquaintance shared with me a memory from her days as a young student attending a Catholic elementary school. Her friend asked a stern but wise nun whether it was OK to pray for a bicycle for Christmas. In a wonderful moment of teaching from the heart, the nun said it was acceptable to pray for the bicycle as long as the prayer asked for a bicycle or something better. A prayer like that leaves God wide open to teach us what is better.
My daughter is not going to have a graduation ceremony, but her school placed a nice yard sign on our front lawn showing how much they value this year’s seniors. During our quarantine, my daughter has gotten to spend a lot of quality time with my wife and me, building relationships that I think are more valuable than a high school graduation ceremony.
I can’t have my rotator cuff fixed because it’s an elective surgery, but I’ve found the limitations of my once-dominant side have helped me become more ambidextrous. I’m getting to be as skilled with my left hand as I used to be with my right. During a recent visit to my hometown of Clover, my parents rode in a golf cart while I strolled about 20 feet away. It was the first time I’d been in their presence physically since our quarantine measures had begun six weeks earlier.
My mom, who has never engaged with technology, now has an iPhone. She uses it to FaceTime with me every afternoon around 1:30. This is a lady who is 87 years old and is legally blind from macular degeneration, but she’s finally learned FaceTime. Now, she gets to hear reassuring voices and see at least the shadows of friends and family.
My Gamecocks looked ready to dominate heading into the NCAA tournament, ending the regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation. With the tournament canceled, they likely will have to settle for an asterisk in the record books. It is disappointing that they did not get to finish their season.
Rural broadband is kind of like the unfinished business of NCAA basketball. The General Assembly was in the midst of deciding who could offer broadband and where. We’ve learned during this COVID‑19 crisis that broadband is essential to all of our citizens. Yet, there are huge swaths of this state where working from home and distance education are nearly impossible because broadband internet isn’t available. The need for rural broadband won’t be resolved this year, but this will not be the last time rural America will need widespread, highspeed internet access.
This pandemic has also stymied the General Assembly’s efforts to reform Santee Cooper. After spending thousands of hours and millions of dollars in its “test the market” process, the General Assembly is left with the unfinished business of whether to sell Santee Cooper, engage in a management agreement with a third-party entity, or reform it. Like broadband and the Gamecocks’ hoped-for national championship, a decision on Santee Cooper isn’t likely to be handled this year, either.
What we plan for and what we need to pray for must be two different things. Now that this crisis has put our plans on hold, we need to pray (and work) for something better.