Saving Private... who?

 Saving Private… who?

 

It was the ravaged aftermath of WWII in europe - with its bombed out buildings haunting its cities - that still captivates my memory.

I was a child when I saw them after the war was over.  I grew up in the U.S., but I was uncomfortable seeing movies that didn’t portray my understanding of the pain and anguish of war in its reality.

I was recently touched by a reference to Steven Spielberg’s movie, Saving Private Ryan, mentioned in the book, On Combat by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.

He reports that Spielberg’s movie is “an incredibly realistic depiction of the violence and horror of combat.”  

But he makes an important point. 

The story has U.S. Army Rangers going behind enemy lines where each man dies trying to save one young paratrooper: Private Ryan.  

In Grossman’s mind: “that band of Rangers represents every American warrior who ever willingly gave his life to give us freedom, the lives and the liberty that we have today.”

Grossman explains: Those Rangers are the same as the soldiers who died in the Civil War… In the bloody tide at Normandy Beach and Iwo Jima.  They are the police officers and firefighters who rushed up the steps of the World Trade Center on 9-11.  “… and they represent the cop who died yesterday… alone and afraid … somewhere in America”.  

Dying words...

At the end of the movie, when the last ranger lays dying, he looks up at the Private they saved… and his dying words are: “Earn it”.  

“Earn it…”

And isn’t that what we all need to consider when we make decisions that protect these precious ideals they fought for us to have?

In seeing and hearing the accusations tossed around today I wonder:  Who is the enemy?  

They said that?

When researching public attitudes during the Revolutionary War, Civil War, etc. I find some very unpopular statements about those folks that today we think are heroes!

So consider this...

Are we the “Private Ryan’s” those Rangers struggled to save?

If so...What are we “protecting” for the future?

Just a thought… 

Picture yourself in the position of the surviving paratrooper as he listens to the dying soldier who saved his life… and his admonition to protect these ideals for the future.

Can we do this…

Saving Private ___________   (Put your name here).

Knock-Knock... ouch!

Is it just your problem?

      Knock-knock!

Who’s there?

(Remind you of a joke?)

But it was no joke to the speaker on the podium… or to the bird who was repeatedly flying into the long window behind him.  The speaker knew the bird’s attacks would be very distracting to the audience, so he called their attention to it.  

A red cardinal was apparently seeing his reflection in the window and deciding it was an adversary, he flew at the window to attack his replica. 

He did this on and off for about an hour.  (Yes, it was distracting but what could you do?)

Theoretically the bird could have decided not to attack the reflection.  Or after doing it a zillion times he could have decided he wasn’t making an impact on the problem.     

Teaching moment!

So it seems like there is a “teaching moment” in this cardinal/window episode.

Can it relate to our “life”?

Can we find ourselves attacking a reflection of what we think is an enemy?  Or a problem?

You focus on it… you attack it.

But the “enemy’s response”…

But “it” doesn’t attack back.

It just remains there.

It doesn’t go away… no matter how much effort you make attacking it.

And so…

So how much time do we spend in our lives just attacking a problem that is simply a reflection?

Maybe we should ask ourselves:  What does this “adversary” represent?

Is it just reflection of something we don’t like in our life?

  Are we the only one who sees it as an enemy? 

Maybe we should consider this…

  What are we accomplishing by attacking this “reflection”?

  Should we do something different?

Could it be that we might just be distracting others?   

  I probably missed a lot of what the speaker said that day because I was watching the cardinal “attack” its self-designated “problem”!  

But this is where friends can help.  Or strangers.  Someone else might see what we’re doing… and help us identify the situation… and find a better solution.  

And “Knock - Knock” can be a joke again!

:)

(This column was inspired after hearing the authors of the book: How to Stop Freaking the %#$@ Out! by Erin Pasch and Kyle Keller at the Cannon Falls Library.)