Veteran's Day
Today is Veteran's Day. It's the first year that I've considered discussing with Rowan the significance of this day. In thinking about how to do that, I've been reflecting on the veteran who has had the most impact on my life.
Once upon a time, a young man in the Air Force met a young woman who was probably too young for him, but they fell in love and got married. He had to spend a lot of time away from her when we was deployed overseas. He sent her photographs, some of them signed on the back, "To my darling wife, Love, Knute." He was my Grampies, William Donald Newberry, and she was my Grammies, Mildred Elizabeth.
Over the years they had three children, who sometimes had to say goodbye to their dad for long periods of time. Grammies told me the sendoff days were the worst, but that she just tried to stay busy and not allow herself to wonder about how she was going to make it all that time without him.
They were married for over half a century before death did them part. They showed our family what it meant to love despite your differences, and to defend each other with passion. They celebrated their family. They instilled in us a sense of pride for our country. By the time I was born Grampies had retired from the military, but I knew the kind of sacrifices he had made, the kind of sacrifices his wife, my Grammies, and his children, my Uncle Donnie, Aunt Cathy, and mom had made through the years.
Today, on this Veteran's day, it's raining steadily. I was up during the night with Rowan, who is sick. I held him and rocked him and listened to him breathe. When I closed my eyes I was flooded with the memory of holding on to both of my beautiful grandparents during their last hours here on earth. Mortality slapped me in the face. I became even more determined to find a way to celebrate this Veteran's Day. But, how could I help Rowan do the same? He doesn't remember Grampies or Grammies. He can look at a map but still doesn't grasp that my mom, his Gram, was born in Okinawa while her parents were stationed there in the Air Force. I could tell him how Uncle Tim was in the Navy, how he had to spend many long months at sea, but Rowan wouldn't understand why that is important. He doesn't know what wars are; he doesn't even know what a country is yet.
I realized, though, that the best way for Rowan to honor veterans today is to honor what those veterans themselves honored: the United States of America and all it stands for. So today, we've talked of freedom, beauty, courage, and brotherhood. We've talked about the God in whom our founding fathers placed their trust while constructing an unprecedentedly just governmental structure that aimed to create an unprecedentedly free society.
Rowan might not understand all that stuff, but looking out our window at the rain falling steadily on the leaves bright with autumn color, he certainly understands beauty. And in his own way, he understands making a sacrifice for someone else, not because you were forced to, but because you chose to. So today, our family says to those veterans we know, and to those who sacrificed to send their loved ones into harm's way: Thank You.