Character and service

(Children’s Defense Fund) – This has been a week of mourning for former President Jimmy Carter and public recognition of his legacy and impact at home and around the world. Carter once called justice, truth, humility, service, compassion and love “the guiding lights of a life,” and those principles were the threads woven through the long lists of his own accomplishments. From people who shared why they gathered to watch his funeral motorcade and stood in long lines to pay their respects in Georgia and at the U.S. Capitol, to the honored speakers at the state funeral ceremony held at Washington National Cathedral, two words in particular were heard again and again: character and service.In his eulogy, President Joe Biden called character Carter’s “enduring attribute,” and said, “It’s an accumulation of a million things built on character that leads to a good life and a decent country – a life of purpose, a life of meaning.” He shared key questions to ask while defining a good life, “Are we striving to do things – the right things? What are the values that animate our spirit? Do we operate from fear or hope, ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do...