🔋 Memorials & Purpose
I am here because others are not. I must move forward because others cannot.
This swirled through my mind during the minute of silence on Memorial Day, while I listened to the wind whipping through the flags around me.
This reality gives me purpose. It gives me strength. It gives me resolve.
In a world of endless distraction and a thousand "priorities," it's tempting and easy to forgo the big picture. To do the next thing with barely a thought towards why we're doing it.
If we think of productivity as a singular dimension, where we must robotically add things to a to-do list and then get them done, we're in for a rough time. If we too closely align a narrow sense of productivity with our unique value, we're in for a rough time. Productivity does not equal self worth.
We should strive to arrest this process, charting an intentional course and adjusting as necessary as we move along.
Working backwards by acknowledging our own unavoidable demise is, perhaps counterintuitively, a helpful place to start. I think about death regularly, but in a healthy and motivating way. "The meaning of life is that it stops," says Kafka. Indeed!
I'm reflecting on the ways in which deaths of others can and should serve as a source of motivation.
Some folks I knew from the corps didn't come home. Many lost pieces of themselves in service, and some were surrounded by demons that pulled them under. My life — particularly the aspects related to supporting veterans — carries forth the legacy of those who are no longer here and those who are no longer whole. And I have the ability to live this privileged life because of so many who came before me, including many who sacrificed all.
There are many other lives I seek to honor. I've written before about my late father and the ways in which I strive to live by his example. "Think!" he'd tell me, over and over. His words and guidance run on an open loop in the back of my mind, encouraging me to not only think, but to embrace good struggle and to find ways to honor and serve those around me.
I am here because others are not. I must move forward because others cannot.
And so it is, and so I shall.
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