Walk A Mile

Friday, August 30,2024

Walk a Mile

As a veteran, I have become accustomed to people thanking me for my service. Although I have grown accustomed to it, the fact that people say thank you to me still makes me uncomfortable. I do not feel as though I have done anything spectacular, or earned such gratitude, I just did what I felt in my heart was the right thing to do to give back to the country that has given me so much.

In September, I will travel to California to watch my son graduate from Marine Corps boot camp. He, at the tender age of eleven, said he felt like he needed to do something to give back like his daddy did, and in that, I had to make sure that he was doing this out of his own accord and not because he thought he had to follow in my footsteps. Once assured that this is what he wanted, I supported his decision and seven years later I was one of the last people to see him as he shipped out for boot camp.

Being a veteran, it is hard to discuss with anyone the things that you have seen and done. You can try, with all elegance, to talk to those who love you but unless they have walked a mile in the same shoes you have, then they cannot understand the gravity of a life lived in the service of this country.

Is it not true that none of us can understand the struggles, hurt, or hardships of anyone unless we have been exactly where they are? I never had any grandparents, so can I say to someone who has lost a grandparent I know how you feel? Can anyone who has not served and lost a brother or sister in arms say to a veteran I feel your pain? We do these things under the guise of politeness and because somehow throughout time, it has been taught to us to be polite, the situation notwithstanding. If one does not have the experience of another how then can one be empathetic to their plight?

Don’t misconstrue what I am saying, it serves one well to be polite and empathetic, but to truly be an empath, one must connect on a spiritual level that can only come from walking the same path as the one feeling the pain. Then and only then can we truly say we know their pain and what they are going through.

 There are things I have not shared with my son about my time in the military because he would not be able to connect and understand, because he had not walked a mile in my shoes, but that has now changed. In a recent letter I received from him he stated, “Daddy I feel the weight of a nation on my shoulders with every step I take”, and my reply to him was this my son is the beginning of your journey.

My son and I have always been close, shared a bond from the time of his birth, but in his service a new bond is formed. A bond that is woven over hundreds of years of service and dedication, a brother/sisterhood that is bought and paid for by the blood of those gone before us. As it was with me, now my son knows what it is like to walk a mile in the shoes of those who preceded him and he and his brothers and sisters in arms lay the foundation for a new generation of patriots willing to walk that mile.

So to you I say today, have you walked a mile in the shoes of those in whom you encounter, if so be kind, empathetic, and loving if not be understanding, for you know not the time or place where you may be required to walk that same mile.