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Words
Worth Remembering
By Stephen Wunderli
Imagine
if words were banked, deposited where you could only withdraw them
on special occasions, and therefore keep from wearing them out from
casual use, or spending them frivolously. Suppose they were protected
from impulse buys because you needed two keys to get at them in
a safety deposit box---one key in the mind and one in the heart.
A lot of people would think twice about throwing words like Love
and Forever around. They wouldn’t waste a metaphor like:
“a river of joy” on a colleague, or “guiding stars of friendship”
on a landlord. And certainly we wouldn’t tip a waiter with “Love
you hon,” if you only had so many “love you hons” in your pocket.
And who among us wouldn’t go digging in the cushions of the sofa
for the loose change of “care about you,” and “let’s get together”
if they were rare phrases to be coined only when you meant it? Suddenly
words would all be worth more if we had to earn them, save up, budget
carefully and spend wisely.
What
would you say on Valentine’s Day if you could only withdraw the
words once? Would you make a smart investment, one that could leverage
a word like “eternity?” Or would your words be spent like nickels
at the arcade, a thrill for the moment, a trinket for a day, another
empty pocket in a week.
It
used to be that words were not spent as liberally as they are now.
Letters from sweethearts thousands of miles away were penned on
scarce paper, under conditions that would make any of us more concerned
about staying alive than writing at all. A young soldier in Guadalcanal
wrote home to his father in February of 1943: “Dear dad,” he begins,
and then describes the conditions in which they were fighting---malaria,
open wounds, living on coconuts and fish heads and facing artillery
and mortar fire. “I’ve had buddies shot down on both sides of me,
my closest calls being a shot put through the top of my helmet by
a sniper…Well anyway God spared my life and I am thankful for it.
I know that your and dear mama’s prayers helped bring me safely
through the long months of it. I hope that you will forgive me of
my misdoings as it had to take this war to bring me to my senses.
Only then did I realize how much you both had done for me and Dear
God, maybe I can come through the next to see you and my friends
again… Love always, your son Allen.”
The
word “Forgive” seems to be worth more in that context, doesn’t it?”
Another
soldier wrote from Europe: “I truly feel that what the U.S. and
the world are facing today is much bigger than anyone of us can
even comprehend, that personal sacrifice and loss must not be allowed
to overwhelm any of us.” He was Dwight Eisenhower, writing to his
wife Mamie. At the time, he was the commander of U.S. forces in
the European theater. A few lines later he becomes more intimate:
“Your love and our son have been my greatest gifts from life, and
on your birthday I wish that my powers of expression were such as
to make you understand that thoroughly---clearly and for always.”
Always---a
word worth its weight in gold here.
Ike’s
was a generation of sacrifice, the greatest generation as tagged
by Tom Brokaw; a generation that not only put their words down carefully,
and thoughtfully, but backed them up with the actions of perseverance,
honor and integrity. From this generation we unearth courage. They
bound together as no other generation before or since, to fight
and die for what they believe in. Secretary of the Interior Harold
L. Ickes best defined the war in 1941: “We should be clear on this
point: What is convulsing the world today is not merely another
old-fashioned war. It is a counterrevolution against our ideas and
ideals, against our sense of justice and human values…that is why
the war is not an ordinary war. It is not a conflict for markets
or territories. It is a desperate struggle for the possession of
the souls of men.”
There
was no such thing as Doublespeak then, or media posturing. There
was only one meaning behind each word and phrase…and millions answered
the call, from the factory workers, to the pilots to the foot soldiers.
Everyone sacrificed, and most importantly, they all knew what they
were sacrificing for. Under the pressures of the world and the fight
for all that is right, this generation became the stewards of principle,
the escorts of change, the parents of the new millennium. They were
there when the war ended, to reconstruct the German economy, to
pour their energies into improving America in the decades to come
with an enormous labor force, an optimism that produced the baby
boom, and politicians that created the Peace Corps, drafted the
Equal Rights Amendment and the Civil Rights Act. More than words,
they were, and are citizens of action.
As
I have navigated my way through the changes that have washed over
this Country since the fifties, I have always had one eye on the
greatest generation, watching. They were there when I was a child,
laughing and teaching and always looking forward, happy to have
built a fortress around the children of America that ensures an
education, enough to eat, a ballgame on a Saturday afternoon. I
questioned their authority in the sixties, like so many other teenagers.
Love then became pocket change to share or mooch from a friend,
a quarter here, a dime there; no value really; just change for self-gratification
Peace was found on the streets, or leaked from vending machines,
or was left on tables at cheap diners It too was pocket change,
devalued, cheapened, and eventually discarded along with words like:
“discipline.”
But
the generation was there, watching, probably weeping. Patriotism
was not in fashion then. War became politically motivated, or even
worse, without a clear purpose But standing firm in these currents
were the men I came to respect, a word lost for a time, but dusted
off when I came to my senses like the soldier in Guadalcanal. I
was never called on to watch my friends die beside me. I was never
called on to place everything I believe in, into one single, do
or die investment. I’ve had the leisure (another new word born in
the fifties) of insuring my efforts with College, a strong economy,
no call for service abroad, and a sturdy family to shore up the
cracks and fissures in my life. The greatest generation has stood
on their principles throughout the “me-decade” of the 80s, where
greed was the creed. They were there through the paradoxical presidency
of the 90s, when leadership was separated from personal morality.
And they are here today, choosing their words carefully for the
new millennium. Their words and advice ring out the way they did
thousands of years ago, as another father, Alma, wrote to his son:
“see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do
good continually; and if
ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have
mercy restored
unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye
shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye
shall have good rewarded unto you again. For that which ye do send out shall return unto
you again, and be restored …And now, O my son, ye are called of
God to preach the word unto this
people…declare the word with truth and soberness, that thou mayest
bring souls unto
repentance, that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them.
And may God grant unto you even according to my words. Amen.”
Consider
that these words were spoken by a father who had seen wars, and
knew wars were to come. Is not our time so different? Should not
our words then be the same?
We
need clarity today We need faith. We need to pause and ponder words
of deep emotion and open our hearts, give wings to our feelings.
There is value in these expressions; they are a spiritual currency
to be spent wisely, yet liberally with those we love. Yes, there
is a history among the greatest generation that deserves its own
expression. But not only as a past to be remembered, for as James
Baldwin expressed: “History does not refer merely, or even principally,
to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from
the fact that we carry it within us.”
There
is a history among and within us of great sacrifice, of undaunted
optimism, of steadfastness toward principles, but especially of
love---love of Country; love of fellowmen; love for wives and children
and callings; but most profoundly, a love for God who created all
of the above. Let us not forget where it is we come from, and the
words that got us here.
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