The best sort of gift

Out in Troy, Kansas, lives a man named Dennis Ruhnke.  He's a farmer by trade, and he had grain bins on his farm.  This is not something we think about when we gobble granola, but storing grain involves a lot of dust.

So farmers wear masks, and the smart thing to wear is one of those N95 respirators, so named because they filter at least 95% of airborne particles.
Dennis is in his 70s now, so is his wife, and she suffers from severe health problems that would make it very risky for her to come down with an infection such as COVID-19.  He found five of the masks while digging through his stuff in the barn.

Dennis and his wife Sharon figured that each of them could make do with two masks, and that left one up for grabs at a time (March of this year) when those things were scarcer than hen's teeth (sticking with the farm angle).

The Ruhnkes saw the daily press briefings on TV and were familiar with the shortage of masks that New York's Governor Andrew M. Cuomo described, so they mailed him their extra mask, with a note asking that he pass it along to a healthcare worker.

“Please keep doing what you do so well,” Dennis wrote, “which is to lead.”

Gov. Cuomo was touched by this kindness, so much so that he almost cried as he read the letter during a televised news conference last month. He praised the farm family for their generosity.

And, as so often happens, something good came of it.

You see, Ruhnke had to drop out of Kansas State University in 1971, two credits shy of his diploma. He needed to leave school and run the farm after his father died suddenly, but not getting that degree always nagged at him.

And then, last week, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly presented him with his diploma in a ceremony at the statehouse. And she made sure to point out that the degree she awarded him was not some honorary title, but quite official, in respect for his years of work in the business of running a farm.

“He provided a dose of inspirational strength to America just as soon as we felt ourselves beginning to buckle under the crushing, prolonged weight of this crisis,” she said. “He has proved to us that he has mastered all the most important lessons that a university has to offer.”

As the years went by, Ruhnke had asked KState about finishing his degree somehow, but was told that too much time had passed, and he would have to start the paper chase from the beginning. But university President Richard Myers said the practical experience was enough to earn the degree.

At the ceremony, he said he had heard from a lot of people who were inspired by his example.  They wanted to know how they, too, could help.

“Just pay it forward as much as you can afford to do so to honor all of those who lost their lives to the C-19 virus,” he said. “And also to honor the first responders, who in some cases also lost their own lives in the line of duty — the ultimate sacrifice.”

For his part, Cuomo called the gift a “snapshot of humanity.”

“It’s that love, that courage, that generosity of spirit that makes this country so beautiful,” Cuomo said. “And it’s that generosity for me makes up for all the ugliness that you see. Take one mask, I’ll keep four.”

"Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be fair, 'Tis a gift to wake and breathe the morning air," in the words of an old Shaker song.

Embrace the gift!