Sacrifice is all about perspective...

It is not my intention to make a political statement with any of this - this is just where I am... today.

Air Force

Memorial,

Washington DC

On this Veteran's Day, I think about my spouse, who has spent most of his adult life as an officer in the US Air Force. He has been away many days from the comforts of home, has gone without enough sleep on innumerable nights, stood watch over airfields from pickup trucks in blustery North Dakota to the blistering heat of Oklahoma, and flown back and forth across the ocean countless times in support of military and humanitarian missions. Since completing OTS (Officer Training School), he has moved twelve times and had over 20 different job titles. He has missed birthdays, anniversaries, family and church events, and rarely worked normal business hours. And while I am his most trusted companion, for the last eight years we have traveled few places and slept few nights without his trusty work-issued Blackberry at his side.

On this Veteran's Day, I think of my dad, who graduated from high school in 1944 and entered the US Army with many of his closest friends. After a short time in basic training, he took a troop train to the West Coast, and got on a ship headed for the Philippines. He spent his last year of military service in Tokyo with General MacArthur's staff, and helped organize the return of troops and equipment back to the US at the end of the war. He thinks his crowning achievement was figuring out how to fly back the States himself so that he didn't have to get back on the blasted boat.

When he returned to North Carolina in 1947, he entered college, got his degree and teaching certificate, and spent a lifetime changing the world with his own special sense of honor and humor. We celebrated his 87th birthday yesterday, and he is happy to be alive, recently overcoming a bout with colon cancer. I've only heard him talk about his military service at length once, but I remember the details well because they explain so much about who he is and how he lives.

Tomb of the Unknown - Arlington National Cemetery

On the Veteran's Day, I think of my Uncle Johnny - my mom's younger brother, who entered the US Air Force as an enlisted Airman, graduated from college, and then re-entered as an officer. He lived in exciting places like Panama and Alaska. When he retired, he returned to Texas and spent the next twenty years taking care of his parents, inviting them into his home and bringing much joy to their lives. His service continues as a lay leader in his church and his Annual Conference and as a lay chaplain to people in need. He brings the same dedication to his work as a civilian as he did to his work as a member of the military. Today is his birthday, and he is a young 75 - still going strong.

This weekend we went out and ran errands, and when people saw my husband's ID card, they responded, "Thank you for your service," or "Thank you for your sacrifice to make our land free." It's a humbling experience, but I will be honest and say that the life we live doesn't really feel like sacrifice on most days.  It feels honorable and necessary and sometimes misunderstood, but I believe we have gotten more out of this life than we could ever have imagined, and that each of us has made a difference in some way wherever we have lived.

Yes, my life looks nothing like I imagined it would when I graduated from college or seminary... nothing like I expected when I got married and made our first PCS (Permanent Change of Station) as a family. I think of all the people I have met, the friends I have made, the places I have been, and the opportunities that have been laid before me, and I am in awe. I am so honored to be a military spouse. Honored to be a part of a special group of people, women and men, who are willing to wait while their military member does important work, at home and far away... people who give back to the community a measure of what they have received from those who came before us... people who are the family that we choose, in places far and wide.

Air Force Memorial, Washington DC

And while Veteran's Day celebrates the contributions made by all military members, here and abroad, who work for peace and accept the risks that go with that work, I also think today of those who have made a true sacrifice, the sacrifice of life and liberty. I think of military members who are separated from their families by oceans and time zones and experiences. I think of those who are lost as Prisoners of War and Missing in Action. I think of our three recently fallen Fairchild airmen, Tyler Voss, Victoria Pinckney, and Tre Mackey and their families, for whom this is more than a day of remembrance, a mere six month after their loved ones died in the line of duty. And I pray that one day we will truly live in a world where this is war no more.

Yesterday at church, we sang this wonderful hymn by Lloyd Stone, "This is My Song" ... you can see all of the lyrics here, but this verse by Georgia Harkness, a Methodist theologian and hymn writer, most caught my attention for this Veteran's Day celebration.  This is my vision of what makes the sacrifices, real or imagined, worth it all in the end.

May truth and freedom come to every nation;
May peace abound where strife has raged so long;
That each may seek to love and build together,
A world united, righting every wrong;
A world united in its love for freedom,
Proclaiming peace together in one song.

I saw and heard a lot of quotes today. These were some of my favorites.

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." -- G.K. Chesterton

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” -- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“I believe it is the nature of people to be heroes, given the chance.” -- James A. Autry

Peace to all on the 2013 Veteran's Day. May it come true in our lifetimes.  Deb