DECEMBER 8, 2023 – After school yesterday, Beth picked up Illiana from school and ferried her back to our house to play for a while before swimming class at 5:00. I was disappointed I couldn’t join in fun around the house, but I was in the middle of a three-hour Zoom conference. With my microphone muted, when Illiana entered the room where I was sitting, we were able to exchange greetings without interfering with the meeting. Observing that I was engrossed and watching me unmute to interject a comment, Illiana didn’t seek or expect my attention. Nor did she move on to any number of her favorite activities elsewhere in the house. Instead, she plopped down next to me on the settee to get a better look at the proceedings.
She didn’t mean to video bomb the Zoom session, but I noticed—as did she—when her face edge into my frame in the gallery of 15 participants. Her leopard ears-headband prompted a few smiles among the group. A bit startled by her own image, she snapped her head to the side to exit the frame.
When she’d first sat down next to me, I’d assumed it was out of fleeting curiosity. But as the minutes passed and Illiana remained motionless at my side, I realized that she’d taken a deeper interest in the Zoom session. She was now attending the quarterly board meeting of the World Press Institute (“WPI”).
There is oh so much that a grandparent wishes to pass to the grandchild and for the grandchild to catch and carry forth—manners, a kind and generous heart, a curious and educated mind, healthful habits, and where to seek happiness and contentment. What does Grandpa Eric want to reinforce? Aha! A knowledge of world geography, which is why a globe on a floor stand occpies an accessible corner of our living room and why I love working with Illiana on her big floor puzzle of the United States.
The WPI Zoom meeting presented a grand opportunity to reinforce Illiana’s growing familiarity with the world beyond her immediate horizons. As I pointed discreetly to board members in the gallery, I told her where they lived. “That woman’s from Australia,” I said, “and that woman up there—brand new to the board—is from South Africa but also maintains a home in Portugal . . . you know, where Mylène’s family is from originally . . . and that man there is from Finland, but for this call he’s actually in Stockholm, Sweden. That man there,” I said, “is in New York City—remember? We were in New York last summer—and that man over there is in Colorado and that one there is in California, and those two women and these three men are from Minnesota and that one’s from Florida, but originally he was from Mexico.”
As the discussion moved down the meeting agenda, I wondered what Illiana thought of it: a review of a WPI-sponsored in Bulgaria; accounting treatment of foundation grants; strategic plannning; and financial statements. Probably little of it made any sense to her, but that mattered little to me. After all, Illiana’s only eight years old. The crucial impressions that I hoped she had were these: 1. The world is a big place, but with enough exposure to it, she’ll realize how small our planet is; 2. However big or small the world, a person can get involved in it far beyond what might seem like narrow contexts of daily life; and 3. May she aspire to follow the example she observed through the window of the Zoom conference.
Active volunteer participation in a not-for-profit organization is as rewarding to the participant as it is essential to the mission of the organization. I worry, however, that we who sit on non-profit boards aren’t doing enough to recruit and mentor young people to ensure the vibrancy of America’s non-profit private sector. Perhaps by happenchance today I took a tiny positive step in the right direction.
Beth and Illiana had to rush off to swimming class before the WPI meeting adjourned. Illiana knew how much I’d wanted to see the class, but she also got to see directly why I couldn’t attend. Maybe that too will underscore the importance I assign to civic involvement. It’s never too early to teach by example.
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© 2023 by Eric Nilsson
