I spend a good portion of my week looking for Cole’s silhouette among the thousands of newbies at basic in photos like this. (Blurred for anonymity) Have yet to find him. But, this picture a few weeks back shifted something in me. I was startled. I didn’t really know this existed. One the one hand...there are rows upon rows of boy-men in prayer. But also, they are actually still boy-men. Shaved heads, camo, and dog tags juxtaposed by the lingering traces of baby fat in their baby faces.
I’ve started reading James Hatch’s bio, Touching the Dragon, this weekend. James was a Naval Seal, who, in 2009, had his femur shattered by enemy fire during a rescue mission intended to retrieve Bowe Bergdahl. Bowe Bergdahl, you may recall, was a Private First Class who deserted his post in Afghanistan, only to be captured by a Taliban aligned network and subsequently tortured, until his controversial rescue in 2014.
Here’s the challenge...I can’t quite wrap my head around the ingrained willingness of those in the military to rescue their fellow men regardless of the life-threatening risk it poses to themselves. This military tenant has a name: Leave No Man Behind. It’s covenant. In his book, Hatch described a tumultuous childhood that created in him a great need for authentic love. He felt the battle field was the ultimate test of love, the only true proving ground. If someone laid their life down to save you, they ultimately demonstrated that they loved you. He’s so jarringly right.
There is currently so much political unrest, so much to hash out regarding gun laws, immigration, health care, foreign policy, the environment, etc... None of us can see a fast acting antivenom on the horizon. It’s an exhaustive mess with complicated solutions and the urgency of need grows more life threatening with each passing day. Determined, I posture myself to remember the goal as the days of greater political contention draws nigh.
Most of the folks in my circles are people of the middle. The majority of my people are folks who have developed the antiquated skill of listening, people who desire equitable answers, people who recognize that each coin has two sides. It’s the ground rules at the table we must all adhere to, this the scaffolding of actual change. Involvement, contemplation, research, repentance, focus. Tim reminds me during the most frustrating of days: forget emotions, quit the blame...stay mission focused, and lead out others towards that same end. It works in the field, at the table, in the family, and I dare say... facebook!
Let this photo encourage and challenge you and me to remember that no matter how much of a circus the upcoming election resembles...and no matter how entirely unscrupulous people in a war for power become, the sentiments behind this photo exist. There are thousands of young men and women currently submitting their lives to pain, scrutiny, surrender and breaking points, so that you and I can rest and curate our own lives in the land without war on our American soil. If the men and women in our military can run head first into enemy fire to save those left behind, then it’s reasonable to assume that I can grow in kindness, perspective, gratitude. I can weigh my words and put the brakes on a critical spirit. I can build up. I can determine to be a bringer of life to the darker of places. And for me, like these boys, it starts on my knees.