dual personalities

I have been thinking about Gen. Douglas MacArthur and listened once again to his farewell speech to West Point, arguably one of the best speeches of the 20th Century.

In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his status in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice of courage.

Let’s all take a few moments to think about that patriotic self-abnegation and the men (and women) who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.

(Here’s a photo of my grandfather on the right with his younger brother who was killed in the Argonne Forest in 1918.)

If you have half an hour, listen to the speech.

As I have said before, Memorial Day is not just an excuse to have a day off and barbecue with family and friends–although we did that yesterday.

There was no mention of Memorial Day at our church which I found interesting but not really surprising. It was just a regular service and two of the four hymns made me cry like a baby. I was a mess. C’est la vie. Our new young pastor finished the Letter to Titus in his sermon and he was on fire, which was pretty impressive considering it was Titus. But that goes to show that any scripture is worthy of our study and exegesis.

In the afternoon the boy and his family, daughter #1 and her friend Liz and her husband and kids gathered with us for family fun and frolic. We started off outside…

…but we had to move inside when it started to thunder and rain. Our twins showed their twins how to have fun at Mamu’s house…

The menfolk had to move the barbecue into the garage, and by the time we were almost ready to sit down to eat, the tornado sirens were blaring, the wind was blowing and the air had turned that green color we know so well. I went to check what was going on outside and Lottie was like, “Mamu, what are you DOING?!” (She was all for heading to the basement immediately.) I said, “Oh it’s nothing to worry about!” and daughter #3 agreed, “If it starts to hail, we’ll reconsider.”

In no time Lottie had the little ones set up with pillows under the dining room table…

As we sat down to eat (at the table), it started to hail. But the hail was only dime-sized, so we went on and ate our dinner.

All’s well that ends well. That’s life in flyover country.

This is a moving tribute about Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery. Lest we forget.

Meanwhile, tonight I’ll be watching They Were Expendable (1945) which has become my Memorial Day tradition.

This is just a great movie. Great action scenes and the romance between Donna Reed and John Wayne is one of the sweetest in cinema history. And General MacArthur makes an appearance.

“That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

–President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863