One of the judges at Saturday night's Dancing with the Clarendon County Stars said that Judge James Dingle was "guilty of being a class act."
He had just danced with Linsy Wells. It was the culmination of a request made by Leigh Ann Maynard and me less than three months ago. According to Judge Dingle, we are "always up to something, usually no good."
Judge James Dingle is one of my favorite people, if not my favorite person.
I have never met a human being that will literally do anything for anyone. Anyone who needs anything can go to him, and if he can't help you himself, he will find someone who can.
There's a word the kids use these days when describing someone who is overly obsessed with another person. You're called a "stan." I believe it comes from the title of the Eminem song where the video and song detail a crazed fan who writes the artist a letter detailing a gruesome murder.
Now, I'm not going to kill anyone, but if you call me a Judge Dingle stan, I'm not going to be offended.
I watched him dance on Saturday night and smiled til my face hurt. I am not an emotional person, other than anger or irritation. Things get on my nerves a lot, I guess you could say. But I teared up watching him go on that stage, all because someone asked him to help a good cause.
He practiced several times a week. This is a man who retired from a career in education more than two decades ago. He retired from being a magistrate judge with the county in 1999 because there's an age limit. He still works mostly full-time and is on several committees, including serving as the president of Clarendon Habitat for Humanity.
I'm 36, have failing kidneys and sleep 12 hours a night, at least.
I hope, if I make it as far as he has, that I can be half as good of a human being as he is.
He told me and Leigh Ann that this was the last "big thing" he was doing. But I bet anyone on this planet that, if I walked into his office this week and asked him to do whatever for whatever cause, well, he'd probably give me some side eye, but he'd do it.
Judge Dingle is surely "guilty of being a class act."
He's an amazing person, and I am honored to know him.
