A Life In Full

On Veterans' Day

Nov 09, 2023

I am attending a memorial service on Veteran's Day tomorrow. Ray Burns was a mentor to me, an icon in our little town, and an American badass. Ray enlisted in the US Navy at 17, served in World War II and the Korean Conflict, and lived a life in full. It's not my place to write Ray's obituary; his family has already done that, which you can read if you like. I was privileged to have known him.

We are living in an interesting time as Americans, particularly with regard to our Military and its place in the World. There are calls to move away from US interventionism and to return to pre-1940s isolationism. If it is true that all wars are political, then it must also be true that great mistakes will be made in the deployment of our troops. After all, a politician is essentially someone who enters a popularity contest because they can't find another job. The folly of bad political decisions should not detract from the sacrifice of those who have served.

How we choose to use our time is how we make sense of the World we are born into. Some of us look inward, we read, and we write, we work, and we play, we hope, and we pray. But Veterans have looked outward, past their horizons and into the World. Through that prism, they have seen fit to blur the boundaries between that World and themselves. To serve is to believe in something greater than yourself. It is to believe that your life is lived in full by banding together for some common cause.

A soldier wears a uniform not as clothing but as a pledge. A pledge of loyalty. A pledge of commitment. A pledge of honor. This is what it means to have served.

Those who have served often live a life propelled by the rhythm of discipline and an acute awareness that service is a sacrifice. In light of great sacrifices, everyday living can be a mere triviality.

Having once served, veterans tend to live lives imbued with a service ethos. Many have conquered the struggle and self-doubt accompanying the choice to put service above self. Many have learned to manage the tension between individual desire and the greater good and the disillusionment that may follow.

A life in service is not a monolithic narrative. Some were called, some were drafted, some didn't think about it. And many did not return home, even if their bodies did.

The plight of many Veterans is often publicized but less often considered. Every day, a veteran dies of suicide, almost 70,0000 are homeless, and around 7% will experience some form of PTSD. We can do better. We must do better.

There are over 16 million veterans living in the US today. Less than 5% of our population has done the hard work of manning the guardrails of Democracy. As the generations that have served during the wars of the 20th Century reach the end of their lives, a smaller group than ever will have seen combat. That's a good thing. That does not make their sacrifices any smaller. Every one of them is a link in the chain.

Veterans' Day is our opportunity to say thank you. In person, on the phone, online. With your heart, with your wallet.

The life of a veteran can be a testament to the American values of sacrifice and selflessness that we should all strive to exhibit in our own ways.

Service is more than just a story of valor on distant battlefields. The veterans remind us that service doesn't begin and end with a military uniform. It's a mindset, a way of living our lives, that living in the World that leaves it better than the way we found it. It's the understanding that each of us, in our own way, can serve our communities every day.

To live a life of service is to have truly lived a life in full. Godspeed, Ray Burns, and thank you to all of our veterans.