Veterans Day - The Right Idea

I am writing this in my home office today where I do most of my writing. I'm looking out the window at a perfectly sunny Veterans Day afternoon. If Veterans Day has a look, at least in my minds eye.... it's today. Nice and sunny, crisp.... just a nice mid-fall afternoon. And don't the Veterans deserve it? No doubt.

Veterans Day has been around now for almost a century. It's gone through some changes, including a name change. But one thing about Veterans Day hasn't changed and I feel will never change. Veterans Day has the right idea. It's the kind of holiday we need more of. It's rare that a holiday is brought to light, where virtually everyone agrees that there is a certain sect of our society that deserves to be recognized and honored. Those that decided that their love of liberty, freedom, and this country are more important than anything else. No matter what your political ideology is, tough to find fault in that.

Think about it. Most holidays involve some form of gift giving, card sending, or some form of stress induced preparation beforehand. Even seemingly simple birthdays over the past 20 years or so have become major productions, with real planning, complications, and major money flying out a door to nowhere. Even unassuming Thanksgiving can be stressful. With the planning, the invites going out, and the pressure to "get it right." But not Veterans Day.

Veterans day is among the most important, and good holidays we have. It's a day we all can agree on and participate in. It is inherently good, because all it involves is the exchange of human kindness between the lot of us, and the few of them. Simply remembering, and thanking a Veteran is all that's required. How good is that? Taking the time to go slow, and show......appreciation for a job, not just well done, but for a life decision... that was done well.

Truth is most of us are not Veterans. And that's OK. We do great things too, we volunteer, help others, and be good neighbors. All commendable. But it's good that there is one day a year that we set aside to really put some thought into those with a different calling. That there was a single day in their lives that they sat down, and signed over their lives to something far larger than themselves. We throw around the term "awesome" in popular speech all the time, but we seldom mean it literally, and seldom does it really apply. But the commitment Veterans chose to make, and subsequently do, and did make? I think "awesome" applies....literally.

My father was a WWII Veteran. Enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942, after giving up a full-ride football scholarship to Duke University. I am looking at this framed letter right now from the athletic director at Duke dated May 6, 1943 wishing him well, and asking he report back to Duke "after all this mess is over" (WWII). He was a tail-gunner in a B-25 bomber in the South Pacific for the wars duration, and even was in occupied Japan after the bombing of Hiroshima. He came back in one piece and went to Ohio University, and never played football again. He graduated at 28 years old. Too old to start a possible career in the up and coming NFL. Something he dreamed of. Sacrifice. Just one small story in a sea of huge stories Veterans have to tell from wars and eras still with us.... and gone by.

Amazing people these Veterans. Who through the years and the changes in our world, never cease to amaze us with their love of country, their pursuit of the good, and their sacrifice for the many. It's not everyone that has the wherewithal to search far within themselves, and so willingly give theirs...... so the rest of us...can have ours.