25th July 2006
A new hero…
My brother Eric’s wife Melissa gave birth to their third child last week. I’ve only been able to go up and see Isabelle Rose Holmlund once so far, but I can tell you that she is a beautiful tiny thing (I’m not sure that thing is the right word at all, but I’m sticking with it). She joins her brother Josiah and sister Emmy in making up a picture-perfect family. (I just thought of this right now, but with this addition, the Fort Collins Holmlunds now have a composition fairly similar to the Simpsons - Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie - but I don’t think that is an analogy worth pursuing at the moment.)
Anyways, up there in the hospital, I was struck by what a man my brother Eric is. He loves his wife and his family more than anything under heaven. Men, witness and take note, as I have: He has done all the in-hospital diaper work for his children so that Melissa could rest from her labors (or, after her labor?…) for a time. And he is obviously a man of integrity in work, even in the times when he is working way too much.
One need only look at the fruit of his life to see what quality he puts in and that he is a pointer to something greater than himself. His children are probably the most significant example of this fruit. Emmy and Josiah are two of the smartest and most honest children that have ever been. The way that Josiah willingly fesses up when he does something wrong makes in obvious that he knows he is loved no matter what he does and that he wants to respond to that love by living in what his parents desire for him.
As for his work, I would recommend looking at his business site, www.ericstips.com, and checking out his last two posts - about some hyperVRE or something, and then about the birth of his daughter. Reading what he wrote is fine, but check out the comments for each of those posts - first the hyperVRE one and then the other.
On the first one, there are a lot of people who were quite upset by the program he reviewed and some upset with Eric for recommending trying it, and Eric patiently tried to respond to all of them that demanded response. But in reading them you can tell that all of these folks respect Eric a great deal and that he has dealt fairly with them in the past. And then seeing how many people have written nice comments to Eric about Isabelle (212 people as I write this) - again you can tell what a devote bunch of readers Eric has. It’s sort of like Jesus - we only have the writings and stories of his disciples, nothing that he wrote himself, but from those writings you can tell that Jesus must have been an amazing man to inspire such devotion - but again, here is an analogy not worthy of further pursuit. (And of course, I also believe that Jesus is still alive and active in the world today, especially in the work of the Holy Spirit!)
Ok, and in other news, I’m done with work at Measured Progress in Longmont. There is nothing more for us to grade there. I’ve been putting off writing on this site because I kept thinking that I would be done already, but then they would ask us to come back for more. I had an adventure filled weekend, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to write a short story about that and post it tomorrow or sometime. I’m going to Colorado Springs for the Desperation Conference and hopefully will get to handcycle with my friend Drew Wills whilst down there. Also, look for a near future post describing some of my amazing comrades whilst at Measured Progress.
4 comments
4 Responses to “A new hero…”
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Mike says:
July 25th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
You the man Eric!
Daryl says:
July 25th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Who is this Mike, and why have I not banned him from this site?
Mike says:
July 26th, 2006 at 12:35 am
Well maybe you would ban me if I was writing things like “Thx I found great information here”
Daryl says:
July 26th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Careful - I almost marked that last comment as spam… Also, I’m a little lost, I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction…