A Job Well Done

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Ray and I were impressed with the hard work of many people who made the Lafayette celebration at the Hermitage a success. The day began with a program in the theater, where a couple of dozen members of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) acted as a color guard to present the American flag.

We later had a good conversation at the Timothy Demonbreun Heritage Society (TDHS) booth with a nice young man who was a member of the SAR color guard. He was interesting, well-spoken, and interested in what we had to share. When he learned about Timothy’s service with George Rogers Clark in the western theater of the American Revolution, he told about his grandfather taking him to the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park when he was a child.

As a side note, this young man and his grandfather remind me of something a friend recently told me at church. While chatting about her love of travel, she told about how important travel was to her father. She said that after her mother died, she and her children went on a day trip with her dad every week. She was a school teacher, so I assume that this was in the summers or before her children were in school. It is wonderful that her father gave her and her children those experiences and that my friend did not see herself as too busy to give her dad the blessing of their companionship.

When the color guard had marched out of the theater, the chairman of the Hermitage Foundation introduced the audience to actors portraying General Andrew Jackson, his wife Rachel, and their guest the Marquis de Lafayette. The Lafayette actor had obviously prepared well. He gave an excellent presentation.

Actor portraying Lafayette at the Hermitage, May 3, 2025

Various chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) hosted most of the booths at the Lafayette event. I was particularly impressed with the booth of the French Lick chapter which was across from the TDHS booth. They had obviously put a great deal of effort into it. It was patriotic and educational, and the members were dressed in red, white, and blue, too. Here are some details from their display:

Even when we try for and even achieve excellence, we can still make a mistake sometimes. When Ray was proofreading this post for me, he noticed that the first of these Interesting Facts has an error. Lafayette was a personal guard for Louis XVI, not Louis XIV, since Louis XIV died several years before Lafayette was born.

I was particularly interested in the display below about the American Foxhound, which the American Kennel Club recognized as a separate breed in 1886. In 1785 Lafayette gifted then-General George Washington with seven French hounds. Washington bred these hounds with his own English foxhounds which had descended from dogs brought to the colonies in 1650. Descendants of those French and English foxhounds are the American foxhounds known today. I never knew that George Washington created a new breed of dogs.

Last Saturday Ray and I saw the results of hard work by many people. Sometimes it is tempting to cut too many corners and do sloppy work. Sometimes it is tempting to be such a perfectionist that we don’t get many jobs completed. As homeschooling mamas, it is important to find a good balance, both with our own tasks and with what we expect and require of our children. We don’t want to pick our children’s work apart until they think they can never please us. On the other hand, we don’t want to teach them that they can always get by with a sloppy job.

There is truth to the old adage: “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right.” Ultimately though, we need to remember Who we are always working for.

Whatever you do, do your work heartily,
as for the Lord rather than for men, 
knowing that from the Lord
you will receive the reward of the inheritance.
It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
Colossians 3:23-25

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