Melville H. Nahin, 33°
1924 San Ysidro Drive, Beverly Hills, California 90210

A child's heartfelt words inspire faith and confidence.

Photo: Illustrious Melville H. Nahin, 33°
Our world is a mixture of good and bad, of bloodshed, famine, and sorrow mingled with hope, joy, and love. When I verge on accenting the negative instead of sustaining the positive, I recall a simple but human story. The scene is an American home. The time, last night, tonight, or any night. The characters are a boy, Jim, and his dog, Bob. These two dwell together in a world known only to those who understand the loyalties that exist between an eight-year-old boy and his dog.

During that day, an automobile struck and killed Bob. The boy's world crumbled. That evening, the father told Jim he must be brave and realize Bob is gone, never to return.

Soon after midnight, the father heard his son crying and, opening Jim's door, heard the boy sob, "But Dad, Bob must be somewhere. He just can't go out like a light and not ever be anymore." The father struggled for words, but they could not overcome his tears.

We, the men and women of this world, know death and defeat. We realize the facts of hopelessness and failure. Sometimes, we surrender to despair; our courage dies. Yet, an eight-year-old child's voice can assert hope and faith saying a dog "just can't go out, like a light, and not ever be anymore."

This simple story is illuminated with that precious quality we call faith, the eternal beacon that lights our way into the darkness of time. It's the story of a child and his dog, but in a greater sense, it's a story of the faith we have, or should have, for the future. As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow says in his famous poem "A Psalm of Life":

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! ...
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul. ...
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
So mote it be.

Melville H. Nahin
is an attorney in Los Angeles, a Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of California (1998–99), Past Venerable Master of Los Angeles Valley, present Chairman of Los Angeles Scottish Rite Childhood Language Disorders Clinic, Past Master Ionic Lodge No. 520 and Southern California Research Lodge, and Chairman of the Board of Governors Shriners Hospitals for Children–Los Angeles Unit.