Remembering Uncle Arnie


Back when I was frequently a smart-mouth teen, Memorial Day didn’t mean a whole lot. It was a day off from school. 

As my girlfriend and I walked home from school, I was bitterly complaining that our Memorial vacation was going to be ruined by the social studies essay our teacher had assigned. 

I griped the whole way to her house. She was silent.




She invited me in and walked to the living room where she reached for a picture on a bookshelf. She  handed it to me. I looked at the old black and white photo of a young man in a Navy uniform. 

She’d never met her Uncle Arnie. But to her dad, Arnie was a hero. She’d heard all the war stories again and again—and each time, Arnie was spoken of with honor. When World War II had started in Europe, her uncle enlisted. Her dad had watched Arnie ship off for a base in Hawaii. It seemed safe, but he missed his brother terribly. Then December 7, 1941 changed all their lives forever. 

Her uncle was among those who grabbed one of the anti-aircraft gunners, desperately shooting at the low-flying planes. A story that was shared by a survivor told of him being burned horrifically by the nearby inferno and continuing to fire his weapon until he collapsed and died.

My friend took the picture I’d been holding and gently placed it back on the bookshelf. Memorial Day was real to her, to her dad, and to the family of the man that had placed his country before himself. 

While my girlfriend began writing her essay, I sat and thumbed through the war books that were on the bookshelf behind Uncle Arnie’s picture. I hadn’t suffered any personal loss because of war, but so many others have.

As I walked home, I thought about what to write. It was no longer a lame assignment, but the beginning of my awareness that war and freedom can cost some families everything they love. 

Photo credit: Casey Horner, Unsplash.com

Popular posts from this blog

Dreaming the Dream

Image
Dreaming big dreams about the future is easy for kids. The only thing standing in the way is time.  Kid’s dreams are not about skills, or opportunities, or even practicality. Those things come much later.  My grandson hopes to be professional soccer player when he grows up. This week, a small piece of his dream came true when his Boys and Girls Club was invited to participate in pre-game activities with the Seattle Sounders Football Club.  He got to suit up in a real jersey and walk on the field with a real pro player. Imagine a young soccer player looking up to who he hopes to be one day. If you haven’t taken the time to talk to a child about their future dreams—you should.  They believe. As we get older we sometimes forget that dreams fuel our hopes—and that's something we all need. So, do you still dream? Or have you left those childhood thoughts behind?  S pending time with children will  inspire you to believe agai
Read more

Sexy Selfies: Posting for attention

Image
We’ve all seen the “selfie” pix on Facebook—those self-taken images in varying forms of dress (or undress). Usually they’re female poses taken in public restrooms, dressing rooms, bedrooms, and lots of what used to be private space. Thanks to selfies and social media, it’s open season on privacy—and modesty. Do you have a social media “friend” who has become a serial selfie? Most often selfies are young girls sharing their sexiness with the world. Serial selfies post hundreds of pictures, so it’s hard to ignore the display. The question is why do they do it. While I don’t approve of the sexy display of serial selfies, insecurity is at the root. Selfies collect “likes” to boost morale. The attention received is like a balm to their broken spirits. But the dark side of exhibitionism is feeling used—not unlike the girl searching for love and giving away her body in hopes of finding love. Selfies seek approval. They're locked in a perpetual cycle of posting pi
Read more

Wild or Tame? Which One Are You?

Image
Finally! Research that explains why I act the way I do. Columbia University’s Motivational Science Center studied people’s activities and what brought them the most happiness. Even more telling were how those activities changed as they aged. Twenty-somethings tend to equate happiness with high-energy activities. Words like excited and ecstatic are usually attached to spontaneous things—even risky things—and living life full throttle.  Researchers labeled this Promotion Motivation —the urge to take chances, including career moves that may not work out. Happiness comes from happenings—the more happenings, the more happiness. By age forty, adults associate happiness with things running smoothly at work and home. It’s also about feeling secure in relationships. Keeping healthy matters more too. This behavior is called Prevention Motivation —and people are more concerned with preserving and maintaining the things they value. It appears that time ofte
Read more