After an interesting discussion about “civic virtue” at senior college, I feel the need to pass on an encouraging story.

Last week I came home to a message on my answering machine from a friend I haven’t seen in years. She happens to volunteer for the alumni association at my high school in Massachusetts, a place I haven’t visited since graduation in 1964. The gist of the phone call was that someone had found my high school class ring and called looking for me.

Fearing a scam of some kind, I took a chance and dialed the phone number, which just happened to be in Maine, and learned that a local gentleman who enjoys metal detecting had located the ring in an area where I used to ski when I was in college. Not only had he gone to the trouble to find me, but he had cleaned and polished the ring so that it looked new. He sent me a picture of it and set a time to meet.

While I am delighted to have my ring back, I am even more excited about meeting someone who enjoys returning lost items that he finds simply for the reward of seeing a person reunited with the past. In the process of getting my ring back, I have reconnected with an old friend and, in addition, my favorite high school teacher, who just happens to run the alumni association.

I don’t know for whom he voted, whether or not he supports universal health care, or if he owns a gun. But this gentleman adheres to the true definition of civic virtue.

Diane Clay

Litchfield

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