I've often been known to "beweep my outcast state and trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries," but in reality, the only thing we're low on is money. We have everything else in abundance. This should be a big Thanksgiving for that reason alone.
The greatest of all great blessings is family. The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ makes that very clear. And we have a great family. I love to read all your blog posts, not to mention emails. I have never had lots of friends, but I have had a few very close ones. But in terms of family, I've been blessed with both abundance and quality! There isn't a single one of them whom I don't love and admire. Every child and grandchild, every niece and nephew, every sibling and in-law, and even every outlaw! (That's a private joke between me and Mary.)
Let me dwell for a moment on the subject of my parents. I love and admire them greatly. They sacrificed a great deal to join the Church, but they've always seemed to count it a privilege. They are members of what Tom Brokaw called "The Greatest Generation." So are Len's folks, Lynne's folks, Sheryl's folks, Shayne's folks, and many other people in or close to the family with whom I've had the privilege to associate in my life.
Brokaw called them this because of what they endured, accomplished, and built. This was a generation raised by survivors of "The Great War," 1914-18 (1917-18 for Americans except those who volunteered early for the air forces of other nations.) They saw and lived through The Great Depression, an event which seems to be growing more real in our imaginations all the time. They fought, financed, and endured The Second World War, the largest human conflict in 6,000 years of recorded human history.
After the war they built a nation which led the world in defending the peace which had been so hard won. Preserving peace does not consist of merely refusing to fight. It often consists of being the only one who is willing to continue to struggle with the forces of evil in the world. And evil is a very real thing in this world, regardless of what some might say. I believe that John Marshall is quoted as saying, "Peace does not come through avoidance of conflict but through the ability to deal effectively with it." So those who laughed at Reagan's "Peacekeeper" missiles and Sam Colt's "Peacemaker" sidearm were not being honest in their accusation of irony.
Our parents' generation was the one that funded and worked The Marshall Plan for Europe and similarly huge projects for Japan. Cynics and skeptics may say we did it for selfish reasons. They may say that we did it to ensure that we had healthy trading partners in order to secure our own economy. They may be right about that. But I ask, "So what? What is wrong with that? It is still the only thing of its kind that has ever been seen. And its immediate effects were anything but selfish on the part of the United States."
Our parents' generation literally rebuilt major nations which had tried to destroy the world and had come pretty close to doing it. They imposed on them democratic forms of government which most of their children have come to appreciate. (That Samurai who tried to take over the Japanese government in the seventies was jeered and hooted at by the very soldiers he had hoped to enlist in his absurd cause. No one ever more justly committed sepuku.)
Theirs was the generation that "stayed the course" as Mr. Reagan asked us to do. They are the ones who literally outfought, outspent, outworked and outlived the huge and powerful Soviet Union. It's so easy for today's doubters to say that the USSR was never much of a threat anyway since it didn't succeed in rendering every other nation on earth a "worker paradise." But if you lived through it, you remember that their desire to dominate the world was very real. If you lived through it, you recall that we often discussed - even in grade school - the very real possibility of waking up some day as a big, smoking hole in the ground!
When you add to these accomplishments the fact that we were raised in the Restored Church, you come to the inescapable conclusion that we are a blessed generation, more so than any which has yet lived.
The oldest living members of our family are truly "The Greatest Generation." May we remember that on this Thanksgiving Day and strive every day of our lives to be worthy of them.
3 comments:
Very nicely put. It puts me in mind of many others of that generation who have already left us. Herman, Chester Fultz, Jimmy Waters, etc. Truly a "great" generation.
I'm glad to include my parents, Carl and Ellen Newman, among the great ones. I grateful they taught me the art of living on very little. Those lessons have often come in handy in my life, never more than at the present time.
This was a lovely post, Dad. I regret being unable to do it justice with all this cold medecine in my system. For now I will simply agree with you. Thank you for the beautiful post.
Post a Comment