What Is The Greatest Thing You've Ever Seen?

Here's my Essay for July, I hope you enjoy it.
-the editor.

This summer my family and I took a driving tour of the Western United States. We saw many of the great tourist sights, the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, giant redwoods, the Pacific Ocean, Yellowstone National Park, Devil’s Tower... and much more. We drove almost six thousand miles in three weeks. They were great, those sights; many are of mind-boggling size and all wonderful in their own way.

However, I was really glad to get home even though the last 50 miles were some of the worst we traveled due to some severe weather and road construction.

But I have to admit that neither the things we saw on the trip nor home was the greatest thing I have ever seen.

The greatest things I have ever seen took place in small rooms in the St. Cloud Hospital. I was present at the births of all three of my wonderful children and I can’t begin to communicate the tremendous joy I felt at all three of those occasions. If I had to choose one of them as being THE greatest it would have to be the first just because it was the first and that is something I can’t change, and I do humbly apologize to my youngest daughters, and it by no means lessens the import of their births or the great love that I feel for them. But there is nothing like that first time and not knowing exactly what to expect, I was quite overwhelmed.

These children are such unique individuals, watching them grow has been almost as wonderful as watching them be born, and all part of the same thing if one takes the long view. Hopefully I won’t have to see them at the end of their lives, but if one takes the REALLY long view, it is all part of the same thing and these wonderful children have really added such color and joy to my life, they are definitely the greatest thing I have ever seen.

So perhaps truly the greatest thing I have ever seen is LIFE.

Dave Cofell
July 30th, 2004