Earn This - Memorial Day

"Earn this." These were the dying words uttered by Captain John Miller, the character played by Tom Hanks, in his final moments in the movie Saving Private Ryan. He was speaking to Matt Damn's character, Private James Ryan. For those of you who have yet to see this film, spoiler alert, the whole film is about making sure one Private Ryan gets to return home after his brothers were all killed in action during WWII. It came at a grave cost- that of almost every man assigned to search and retrieve him. Men who were already bone-weary from having survived the trauma and chaos that is D-Day. Men who wanted nothing more than to go home, but called back in because one life is worth the calculated risk of losing several more. Still, they went, in part out of a sense of duty, and in part in search of their own salvation. So it was a poignant scene when Captain Miller, who knew he at last secured safe passage for this young private through the sacrifices made, to impress upon Private Ryan to make sure he earned it moving forward. 

This memorial day, as we salute the fallen, as we remember their ultimate sacrifices made, I would like to impress upon us to remember likewise. In the midst of all the BBQs, the fireworks, the beach trips, and weekend sales take a moment and ask ourselves, "Have we earned this?" And while we are at it, ask ourselves one more question, "how many more will we send down that path?" 

It is easy to glorify war, it is easy to dignify the deaths of young men and women sent on a noble quest. The politicians can wax eloquence on freedoms threatened and people in need of liberation. Yet death upon the front is rarely dignified because no matter how you cut it, it is life upon life in their prime cut short. It is life upon life nurtured in love, joy, and hope abruptly terminated by anger, fear, and hate. No amount of poetry and eulogies, however elegant, can comfort the grief now experienced by their loved ones or fill the voids in the communities they have left behind. It is bloodstain that can never be washed. 

So, on this Memorial Day weekend, as we honoured the lives lost, take a moment, visit a military cemetery or a memorial, and try to answer truthfully, have we earn this. 

"When You Go Home,
Tell Them Of Us And Say, 
For Their Tomorrow, 
We gave Our Today"
~ John Maxwell Edmonds