
In Rotary Magazine’s December 2024 edition, the editor in chief (Wen Huang) wrote a beautiful article about getting out to not only see the world, but to also experience the world. He referenced Lao-tzu’s fable of the frog in the well. After reading this previously unknown fable to me, I was inspired to read the re-read Plato’s allegory of the cave. The messages that come from these two philosophers’ (one Chinese and the other Greek) continue to be relevant today and are worth exploring again (or reading for the first time.)

(Rotary District 6250 Leaders - left to right: District Governor Nominee Scott Ryan, District Governor Todd Restel, District Governor-Elect Mike Kloss and District Governor Nominee Designate Martha Klatt).
As Rotarians, we are actively seeing and experiencing the world. In fact, Rotary is thriving as a direct result of its 1.2 million Rotarians being directly involved in our communities around the world at the local, national and international levels. Moreover, as “people of action”, we have literally spent billions of dollars via ‘The Rotary Foundation’ and as a group we have invested millions of hours to tackle problems that fall within Rotary’s seven areas of focus, which are:
- Promoting peace
- Fighting disease
- Providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene
- Saving mothers and children
- Supporting education
- Growing local economies
- Protecting the environment
In today’s world where technical degrees and trade schools offer amazing opportunities to our young people, I feel blessed that I received a liberal arts degree replete with sociology, history, literature, arts and other non-technical classes that helped me learn to think and prepared me to live in our world.
Experiencing these concepts in-person will be easy for you if you come to our TriCon conference on April 25th and 26th in Brookfield, WI. One of General Session speakers will be Richard Kyte. Rick is Director of the D. B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership and Endowed Professor of Ethics at Viterbo University in La Crosse, WI where he teaches a variety of courses dealing with ethical issues in business, health care, law, politics, and the environment. He has published and lectured widely on topics related to justice, forgiveness, virtue, and the meaning of life.
I just finished reading Rick’s new book “Finding Your Third Place: Building Happier Communities (and Making Great Friends Along the Way)”. Rick is a world class speaker that you will not want to miss. The entire agenda and speaker line up for TriCon 2025 can be found at the following link: https://rotarytricon.org
I hope to see you all in Brookfield in a few months.
Respectfully,
Todd Restel
District Governor 6250