SILVER SPOON
Many times, usually in jealousy or envy, I have heard, or even spoken the phrase “She/he was born with a silver spoon in their mouth.” Normally this statement was referring to a person that was felt to have been born into a more privileged life than the one speaking was experiencing. I felt most people fit into this category. I was born the son of a central Texas dry land farmer that had very little available cash at any time. We were rich however in family. We shared an abundance of love, protection and care for each other. We saw no need for other riches.
I haven’t heard that statement much in recent years. I do hear how the majority of millenials are still living with parents, after graduating college. I do see young people going to school and filling the parking lots with high priced automobiles. Most people wear expensive designer clothes lest they be ridiculed and shunned. Where has the emphasis on riches that matter gone?
The Memorial Day holiday has just passed. The vast majority of things I heard being expressed concerning the holiday had nothing to do with its true meaning. Since the Civil War, which took more lives than any conflict this country has participated in since, people have reserved one day a year to reflect and remember those that made our way of life possible. These were the heroes of freedom and liberty.
There was a time when young men, and women, were ready and willing to sacrifice all to defend this country and what it stands for. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on that fateful Sunday morning in December, my father-in-law, his brother, and their father, together enlisted in the United States Navy. This was done as an act of sacrifice, honor, bravery and the call of duty. Lives, education and careers were put on hold to take a stand against aggression being exerted in vast areas of this world.
As I grow older I question how we, me included, have reared our children and what principles we have instilled in them. Have we created a generation of loyal patriots willing to risk what those before have risked? We have been extremely preoccupied with not only supplying their needs but also furnishing most of their irrelevant wants and desires. If duty called, have we prepared them to step up and accept the challenge, or have we convinced that all good comes easy. Would every person sit back and wait on others to serve, while enjoying the easy life? Would this generation be willing to die for this country if the need be?
I hope and pray the situation never arises that would test us. I want no family to suffer the grief of losing loved ones on faraway lands or in battle in our homeland. We need to teach young people and future generations the true meaning of Memorial Day. Have we taught the giving of thanks at Thanksgiving? Other than parties, gifts and gift giving have we taught the true meaning of Christmas? We have a duty we cannot shun to educate others and show by example what holidays are for and their meaning. Life was never intended to be easy or fair. Neither was life ever supposed to be enjoyed only by the privileged. We all must be prepared to pay the price, whatever it is, to be able to continue our way of life.
I now look back and search for those believed to have been born with silver spoons in their mouths. It’s really difficult to distinguish who those people were. If I can separate myself from the jealousy and envy we find so easy to fall victim to, I look at myself differently. I now believe I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, the silver spoon of freedom and liberty. Thank God I was born so privileged.
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