Everybody's Been Shot

I am reminded again of my own propensity to see my troubles as unique. To wish the world would stop and all would gather round to hear my tales of woe. But, the reality is, everyone is already thinking about their own problems, their own unique set of circumstances, to give much time to mine. And the health care debate rages in the background as the government, or some in government, think it is the job of the government to solve my problems. However, I find the more they try to solve my problems, the worse things seem to get. But this is not meant to be a rant.

Peggy Noonan's masterful writing comes to mind. She served President Reagan as a speechwriter and now opines for the Wall Street Journal on a weekly basis. Let me commend her outstanding book, When Character Was King, the story of Ronald Reagan's life and the underpinnings of his presidency. You will be surprised at the remarkable man and the alacrity with which he served.

History teaches us life is hard and perseverance through hard things usually wins the day. There may be no grandstand, no accolades but those who endear themselves to us show the character of pressing on. Books are written about such people. Books about whiners don't take up much shelf space. I offer these words from Peggy's article from January 2002 - "Everybody's Been Shot: Americans are exquisitely sensitive...just not to each other.
"There's a small but telling scene in Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" that contains some dialogue that reverberates, at least for me. In the spirit of Samuel Johnson, who said man needs more often to be reminded than instructed, I offer it to all, including myself, who might benefit from its message.
The movie, as you know, is about the Battle of the Bakara Market in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993. In the scene, the actor Tom Sizemore, playing your basic tough-guy U.S. Army Ranger colonel, is in charge of a small convoy of humvees trying to make its way back to base under heavy gun and rocket fire. The colonel stops the convoy, takes in some wounded, tears a dead driver out of a driver's seat, and barks at a bleeding sergeant who's standing in shock nearby:

Colonel: Get into that truck and drive.
Sergeant: But I'm shot, Colonel.
Colonel: Everybody's shot, get in and drive.

"Everybody's shot." Those are great metaphoric words...What does that mean? It means something we used to know. It means everyone has it hard, everyone takes hits, everyone's been fragged, everyone gets tagged, life isn't easy for anyone.

She cited numerous examples of those who view their problems are unique, as though, well, everyone should stop what they are doing and feel sorry. But, duty calls. The call of duty demands tenacious perseverance. She recalls different times:

"When I was a child in the old America, people said things like, "It ain't easy." Then they'd shrug. Or, "Whatta ya want, life ain't easy!" I think people actually sighed more in those days, issued forth big long sighs that said: Life is hard. There was a sort of general knowledge that each day would not necessarily be a sleigh ride, and that everyone hits bumps along the way, and some of them are really hard, and everyone sooner or later hits them."

Peggy goes on to offer some sage advice for us all - President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Butler:

"But now, more so than in the past, something has grown in our country, grown perhaps because of good things like psychotherapy and bad things like group-identity politics. And that something is an increasing tender regard for one's own sensitivities and quirks and problems and woes--twinned with a growing insensitivity to everyone else's quirks and problems and woes.

This is not progress. If we became more aware of others instead of demanding that others be more aware of our needs, we would probably get a better fix on life, a better perspective, a better sense of everyone's context. We'd wind up more patient with others, more sympathetic. We could actually wind up sensitive to someone other than ourselves."

Persevere. Don't complain. See other's needs as greater than our own. Everybody's shot - let's keep going together.