Service

 

There is a scene in the film SAVING PRIVATE RYAN that always causes me pause. It's early in the movie when the military officials arrive at the home of Mrs. Ryan. There is no dialogue, just music and the notification to a mother that her sons had been killed in the war. 

I pause because it makes me reflect on my maternal grandmother who had three sons in active duty during World War II (another son was in the CIA) and Dave, the youngest of her boys, never returned home. As the military telegram stated, "his plane was last seen trailing the formation." 

One of the wisest design features of the WWII monument in Washington DC is having carved into the walls that lead into the monument images of the sacrifices that also were made on the homefront.  Truly this was the "greatest generation" and from women going to work in the factories to the rationiong of milk, meat, eggs, gasoline and rubber the entire nation played a part. I daresay without this total effort and commitment we may not have prevailed. 

On this 77th Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, I am proud of my maternal and paternal lines' lived examples and efforts.  I want to claim that their bloodline is mine. 

Many of the members of America's Greatest Generation have passed.  We will never see their likes again.  As we continue our collective journey through this global pandemic, we need an infusion of their spirit of sacriifice and individual actions for our shared common good. 

Today is the birthday of Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund who said, "service is the rent we pay for living." My goodness.... is the rent due.