Joe Gentry

2024 was an interesting year. I want to share a couple of my memories from this past year that impacted me and I will soon not forget.

The first is the solar eclipse which occurs on average once every 12 years, with North America’s next eclipse scheduled for Aug. 23, 2044. If I’m fortunate and stay healthy maybe I’ll be able to experience it once more. The 2024 eclipse was a seminal and perhaps once in a lifetime event for people living in Northeast Michigan. Elizabeth Diaz had a profound perspective on the eclipse’s occurrence.

“As the moon crossed over the sun yesterday, millions of people from Mazatlan to Maine stopped to gaze upward in a profound experience of awe. The solar eclipse tapped into a primal emotion. It evoked for many a mystical moment, as awareness of the celestial encompassed the earth. It revealed the close dance between spirituality and science.

Diaz continued, “For a nation pulled apart by every manner of division, the eclipse also offered a moment of unity, however brief. It was a reminder to everyone, on the same day and at the same time, that life can be magical. That being alive is a collective experience. That there is something about being a part of the greater story of things.”

“A moment of unity.” “Life can be magical.” “Being alive is a collective experience.” Let those thoughts sink in. This New Year — 2025 — let those ideas guide you.

And, of course I cannot ignore the 2024 presidential election, one unlike any I’ve ever experienced. An incumbent president dropping out at the 11th hour, an assassination attempt and finally an undisputed and non-violent election. However you voted and whatever you feel, I ask you to consider this sound advice from Madame Chiang Kai-Shek:

“If the past has taught us anything it is that every cause brings its effect, every action has a consequence. This though, in my opinion, is the moral foundation of the universe; it applies equally to this world and the next.”

Too often it seems that the wicked wax and prosper. But we can say with certitude that, with the individual as with the nations, the flourishing of the wicked is an illusion, for, unceasingly, life keeps books on us all.

In the end, we are the sum total of our actions. Character cannot be counterfeited, nor can it be put on and cast off as if it were a garment to meet the whim of the moment. Like the markings on wood which is ingrained in the very heart of the tree, character requires time and nurture for growth and development.

Thus also, day by day, we write our own destiny; for inexorably we become what we do. This, I believe, is the supreme logic and law of life.”

The good Madame had it right. Think about the example set by former President Jimmy Carter. In 2025, write your own destiny and remember what Yoda said, “There is no try! Only do!”

Happy New Year.

Joe Gentry is the executive director of the United Way of Northeast Michigan. Reach him at 989-354-2221 or jgentry@unitedwaynemi.org.