This particular essay comes a few weeks overdue, but based on its nature and content, I certainly felt it imprudent to rush into such a topic, given its gravity. So as these thoughts have stewed over the past weeks, more rich have grown the flavors of appreciation I truly feel. Despite the content of what may follow, do not mistake this for a political piece, rather it is a collection of observations and inquiries into the lives we live (as always) and whether or not we live them as having been changed. I know many of these thoughts are disconnected and not cohesively presented, but I’m not here to convey a thesis, I’m just sharing some things that are shaping the way I’m seeing the world these days.
Upon my arrival here in London, apart from the hundreds of circumstantial differences I noticed in my daily life, I happened to have landed right in time for remembrance month. Now in the US, I am accustomed to patriotism speckled throughout the year, with a few long weekends and parades to pay , however brief, an homage to the freedom we have been afforded and the cost at which it was bought. The United Kingdom dedicates a month to memorialize those who gave their all so that others might have a chance at a good life and the grandest luxuries, freedom. Symbolically men and women adorn themselves with red poppies on their lapels to represent the blood that was shed so that they might have, the very life that they know, here, now, forever changed.
Over the course of the first few weeks I found myself thinking more about those that sacrificed for me in a lot of different ways. Being here has helped me to realize that the extent that great men past and present, would go to has been far past my consideration, and far beyond my comprehension, but my view is improving and I’m learning much about the negligence that I and so many others live drowned in. In the early weeks of my wandering here I was running through the area near the houses of parliament, and as I made my way home I came across a beautiful quote by Ben Okri at the Indian/Carribean war memorial that said “Our Future is Greater than our past”…and so from there and throughout remembrance month I began to process that which was paid (in the past) to ensure that I (me personally) might have a future and a great one at that.
I think it is fair to say, before I continue, that I would not even consider myself one who is detached from the great lengths that have afforded my liberties, nor do I feel like I live in neglect, but yet I feel it is safe to say that America lives and has lived an existence insulated from much of the fallout of most of the global military conflict throughout the modern time. It is not opinion, but fact, that we’ve be lucky enough to be out of the proximity of harm’s way, which can change the perspective we hold. Also, it’s very easy to forget all that’s given elsewhere in the world, in my mind this fact does not discount the cost of the American lives that have been given, but rather, it makes the cost all the more, a united front, a purpose great enough that men and women of many races and creeds might die that the cause of freedom might live.
On remembrance weekend, the weekend before our veterans day, I attended a church service that paid homage to a few men and women who gave their lives during WWII in unadulterated acts of bravery and love. As I sat quietly listening to stories that sounded so familiar to those I’d heard of our greatest generation, I realized a fundamental truth that had escaped me or at least that I had not been attentive to. In our war stories, we (America) are often painted the hero, the protagonist of hope and freedom, yet in doing so I’ve neglected that the loss, the fight was far beyond being purely American. So as I sat hearing of these heroes who fought bravely, the truth that the freedom of other men was a noble purpose and one that must be fought for seemed to resonate all the clearly.
So often it is easy for me to simply gravitate toward the sacrifice made (ie the life lost, those who gave) but why? It is not a political agenda, despite how it may seem, you and I have elected men and women to protect the name of freedom, and to fight for its cause when necessary…I would hope we’re not fighting for oil, or to protect our hegemony, but for the noble purposes of freedom for all.
Last weekend when I got to Paris in shorter time than I could get to Austin from Dallas, I realized the true severity of the threat that Nazi Germany posed and its propinquity to the UK. While it may seem inconsequential to the American war, it helped me contextualize more thoroughly all that was given, and all that was at stake.
Thus I have learned that a major shortcoming of my worldview is that the price paid for my political and religious freedom was purely American. Somewhere, long ago, a lot of people from this nation in which I now live died that I might know life some 60 years later. They believed that the prevalence of freedom, and the eradication of tyranny was instrumental for the future of this world, and this was true. They might not have known my name or whether I would even appreciate all they would do…but nevertheless they saw fit to give to a cause for our generation and generations to come. The sacrifice we know today both of this generation and the ones before us should not be forgotten.
Maybe the US is too big, or too far, or perhaps too entitled, but what I have found as a deep sense of national pride here is a refreshing as the crisp autumn that welcomed me here. Perhaps it is the small size relative to the states or the longer standing history. National pride and identity for what it means to be a citizen and countryman here is not lost on these people. They love what they are and what they have stood for, for better or worse…I pray that God grants me the strength to stand proud for the noble things, and the humility to lay down my sword when I’ve been wrong.
On Remembrance day, the nation of England had 2 minutes of silence to stop what they were doing and live a life that was interrupted to commemorate the price of our modern freedom…20 the math, if 10M people give 2 minutes, how many years does that equate to? I think that’s 38 years of time given from those in London. It was a great testament to what the collective power of the masses can do if we work in a unified front.
I guess all these things have given me pause to reconsider and be grateful for those who have given, are giving, and will give so that our future might be greater than our past. I’m trying to find my place in all this, as always, maybe it’s with a pen, maybe it’s with my time, or perhaps my money, but either way I know that I needed someone to be a champion for my freedom, and with that I must consider how to be a champion for others.
…What if we lived a life changed by the sacrifice that was made? How would our lives and our world be radically changed if each day we considered the cost that was paid that we might have life? What love is it for a man to lay down his life that others might live?
The tragedy is not that a sacrifice was made, but a tragedy is if we live in a way whereby the sacrifice was in vain.
Finding where I fit in the grand scheme of these things…
CP
http://chrispanoff.blogspot.com/
PS Hoping to return with more cheery and orginazed holiday thoughts.
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