M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

Words Worth Remembering
By Stephen Wunderli

Imagine if words were banked, deposited where you could only withdraw them on special occasions, and therefore keep from wearing them out from casual use, or spending them frivolously. Suppose they were protected from impulse buys because you needed two keys to get at them in a safety deposit box---one key in the mind and one in the heart. A lot of people would think twice about throwing words like Love and Forever around. They wouldn’t waste a metaphor like: “a river of joy” on a colleague, or “guiding stars of friendship” on a landlord. And certainly we wouldn’t tip a waiter with “Love you hon,” if you only had so many “love you hons” in your pocket. And who among us wouldn’t go digging in the cushions of the sofa for the loose change of “care about you,” and “let’s get together” if they were rare phrases to be coined only when you meant it? Suddenly words would all be worth more if we had to earn them, save up, budget carefully and spend wisely.

What would you say on Valentine’s Day if you could only withdraw the words once? Would you make a smart investment, one that could leverage a word like “eternity?”  Or would your words be spent like nickels at the arcade, a thrill for the moment, a trinket for a day, another empty pocket in a week.

 It used to be that words were not spent as liberally as they are now. Letters from sweethearts thousands of miles away were penned on scarce paper, under conditions that would make any of us more concerned about staying alive than writing at all. A young soldier in Guadalcanal wrote home to his father in February of 1943: “Dear dad,” he begins, and then describes the conditions in which they were fighting---malaria, open wounds, living on coconuts and fish heads and facing artillery and mortar fire. “I’ve had buddies shot down on both sides of me, my closest calls being a shot put through the top of my helmet by a sniper…Well anyway God spared my life and I am thankful for it. I know that your and dear mama’s prayers helped bring me safely through the long months of it. I hope that you will forgive me of my misdoings as it had to take this war to bring me to my senses. Only then did I realize how much you both had done for me and Dear God, maybe I can come through the next to see you and my friends again… Love always, your son Allen.”

The word “Forgive” seems to be worth more in that context, doesn’t it?”

Another soldier wrote from Europe: “I truly feel that what the U.S. and the world are facing today is much bigger than anyone of us can even comprehend, that personal sacrifice and loss must not be allowed to overwhelm any of us.”  He was Dwight Eisenhower, writing to his wife Mamie. At the time, he was the commander of U.S. forces in the European theater. A few lines later he becomes more intimate: “Your love and our son have been my greatest gifts from life, and on your birthday I wish that my powers of expression were such as to make you understand that thoroughly---clearly and for always.”

Always---a word worth its weight in gold here.

Ike’s was a generation of sacrifice, the greatest generation as tagged by Tom Brokaw; a generation that not only put their words down carefully, and thoughtfully, but backed them up with the actions of perseverance, honor and integrity. From this generation we unearth courage. They bound together as no other generation before or since, to fight and die for what they believe in. Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes best defined the war in 1941: “We should be clear on this point: What is convulsing the world today is not merely another old-fashioned war. It is a counterrevolution against our ideas and ideals, against our sense of justice and human values…that is why the war is not an ordinary war. It is not a conflict for markets or territories. It is a desperate struggle for the possession of the souls of men.”

There was no such thing as Doublespeak then, or media posturing. There was only one meaning behind each word and phrase…and millions answered the call, from the factory workers, to the pilots to the foot soldiers. Everyone sacrificed, and most importantly, they all knew what they were sacrificing for. Under the pressures of the world and the fight for all that is right, this generation became the stewards of principle, the escorts of change, the parents of the new millennium. They were there when the war ended, to reconstruct the German economy, to pour their energies into improving America in the decades to come with an enormous labor force, an optimism that produced the baby boom, and politicians that created the Peace Corps, drafted the Equal Rights Amendment and the Civil Rights Act. More than words, they were, and are citizens of action.

As I have navigated my way through the changes that have washed over this Country since the fifties, I have always had one eye on the greatest generation, watching. They were there when I was a child, laughing and teaching and always looking forward, happy to have built a fortress around the children of America that ensures an education, enough to eat, a ballgame on a Saturday afternoon. I questioned their authority in the sixties, like so many other teenagers. Love then became pocket change to share or mooch from a friend, a quarter here, a dime there; no value really; just change for self-gratification Peace was found on the streets, or leaked from vending machines, or was left on tables at cheap diners It too was pocket change, devalued, cheapened, and eventually discarded along with words like: “discipline.”

But the generation was there, watching, probably weeping. Patriotism was not in fashion then. War became politically motivated, or even worse, without a clear purpose But standing firm in these currents were the men I came to respect, a word lost for a time, but dusted off when I came to my senses like the soldier in Guadalcanal. I was never called on to watch my friends die beside me. I was never called on to place everything I believe in, into one single, do or die investment. I’ve had the leisure (another new word born in the fifties) of insuring my efforts with College, a strong economy, no call for service abroad, and a sturdy family to shore up the cracks and fissures in my life. The greatest generation has stood on their principles throughout the “me-decade” of the 80s, where greed was the creed. They were there through the paradoxical presidency of the 90s, when leadership was separated from personal morality. And they are here today, choosing their words carefully for the new millennium. Their words and advice ring out the way they did thousands of years ago, as another father, Alma, wrote to his son: “see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again. For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored …And now, O my son, ye are called of God to preach the word unto this people…declare the word with truth and soberness, that thou mayest  bring souls unto repentance, that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them. And may God grant unto you even according to my words. Amen.”

Consider that these words were spoken by a father who had seen wars, and knew wars were to come. Is not our time so different? Should not our words then be the same?

We need clarity today We need faith. We need to pause and ponder words of deep emotion and open our hearts, give wings to our feelings. There is value in these expressions; they are a spiritual currency to be spent wisely, yet liberally with those we love. Yes, there is a history among the greatest generation that deserves its own expression. But not only as a past to be remembered, for as James Baldwin expressed: “History does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us.”

There is a history among and within us of great sacrifice, of undaunted optimism, of steadfastness toward principles, but especially of love---love of Country; love of fellowmen; love for wives and children and callings; but most profoundly, a love for God who created all of the above. Let us not forget where it is we come from, and the words that got us here.

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