Was at an orienteering meet in northeast ohio, and talking with Bob Bolts about geocaching, he told me about this orienteerer-geocacher that died two years earlier, and about this beautiful eulogy.
--
Good morning. I’m here on behalf of the community of geocachers that was so enriched by Eric’s presence during his time with us. I would like to thank Eric’s family and Reverend McGlawn for giving me the opportunity to talk to you all about how much he meant to us.
There are about 50 of us geocachers here today, coming from several states. I thought I’d better explain to Eric’s other friends who all these people are. The game of geocaching is like a high-tech treasure hunt that we play using our parks and forests as the gameboard. Someone hides a container full of goodies, publishes the latitude and longitude coordinates on a website, and others try to find it using a handheld GPS receiver. Then you can take a present from the cache, and leave something else for the next person to find.
Eric discovered geocaching in 2001, and adopted the online handle of "Sherwood Forest." Eric was not so much “Robin Hood” as he was the “Pied Piper.” By helping people learn the game, by hosting and attending picnic events, and by working with the MetroParks, he helped grow our sport and transformed a scattered bunch of technology geeks into a strong community of friends, as shown by their presence here today. Now, there are more than 3,000 geocaches within 100 miles of this spot – many hidden by him, and which will live on in his memory.
Eric brought a spiritual passion to geocaching that I think also demonstrated his relationship with God. I’d like to think he was inspired by these words from the Gospel of Matthew:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
Here, Jesus compares the search for God with a search for treasure… and the game of geocaching is about a search for treasure, not only found in little boxes in the woods, but also in the people found along the way. And you know what? God doesn’t hide himself so deep that we can’t find him. He wants for us to search and discover, by joining in games with people such as geocaching. When a geocacher met Eric, it was very easy to see God working through him. SherwoodForest made God a difficulty 1 cache.
Taking a walk in the woods with Eric was a peaceful, quiet experience that many of us had the pleasure to enjoy. One of his friends wrote to me this week about a time when Eric was part of a group of three geocachers who walked silently down a beautiful trail. Finally breaking the silence, Eric said in his best Elmer Fudd voice: “Be vewy, vewy qwiet. I’m hunting Tupperware.” That phrase is now famous among geocachers in Ohio.
Often, Eric would find the geocache before everyone else, and then he would hang back with that half-grin on his face that said “I know where it is,” and watch everyone else search for the hidden cache container. He wrote an internet log in the form of a haiku poem about that:
Round and round they go
Up and down and hither yon
But it’s over there….
Now, the prophet Daniel had different words for this:
"He makes known secrets that are deep and hidden; He knows what is hidden in darkness, and light is all around him."
Eric was an expert at finding hidden things, and I’m not talking just about geocaches. He found the good in people and drew it out of them. If you had a talent for something, he’d encourage you to develop it. If you were a new face at the picnic, he was the person who came up and got to know you, then introduced you around to everyone else. As one of his friends observed this week, Eric was great because he was *always there.*
But now he’s not here! I think so many of us are upset because Eric was taken away from us far too soon. I’m not sure I can say anything to ease that pain. I know that when I heard the news, I needed to go out on a hike where I hollered to God at the top of my lungs from the middle of the woods, asking why this happened, until I noticed that some deer were staring at me with a look on their face that said “this hiker dude is CRAZY.”
I will try to use a geocaching phrase to try to provide some comfort. The phrase is, “It’s not about the numbers,” and it’s used to criticize people who find too many geocaches too quickly, like it’s a contest instead of just a nice way to enjoy God’s great outdoors. Psalm 90 says,
“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
So yes, a life was cut short if you measure the days. But it’s not about counting how many days you live, it’s about making your days count… living each one of them to the fullest. It’s not about the numbers. And for Eric, it wasn’t about the number of geocaches and boy, did he live his number of days to the fullest. He was still finding geocaches just four weekends ago.
I would like to ask all the people here today who run around in the woods, taking and leaving meaningless trinkets held in little boxes, to do Eric two favors. The first is to think about numbering our days aright. Psalm 39 provides another helpful reminder to keep our numbers in perspective like Eric did:
"Lord, tell me when the end will come and how long I will live. Let me know how long I have. You have given me only a short life; my lifetime is like nothing to You. Everyone’s life is only a breath. People are like shadows moving about. All their work is for nothing; they collect things but don’t know who will get them. So, Lord, what hope do I have? You are my hope."
The second favor I’d like to ask of you is to keep finding geocaches, starting today. Eric would be really, really upset if you wasted a beautiful fall day like today being sad on his account. How convenient, he set up a geocache that’s a walking tour of Warren. It begins right here at his church. He could have shown us his hometown by beginning at the library or the school or the town hall, but he chose his church. That tells you what was important to him. So please join me after the service to find that geocache and enjoy a nice day outdoors. The name of the geocache is “A Walk Down Millionaire’s Row.” Today we are all millionaires, having been enriched by knowing Eric Sherwood. I look forward to taking that walk with you, and then writing about my story at our website. I know that just this once, Eric won’t mind if we all end our logs by stealing his trademark phrase:
Cache Well, and See You ‘Round the Bend.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment