I have the pitifulest collection of scrawny broken seashells, and one baby sanddollar, with a small bit of sand, from this 1st trip back to the beach, since all the surgeries. I couldn't stand up in the waves to catch any more than that one sanddollar, and had to settle for the bits of shells on the shoreline. That's what you have to do to catch a sanddollar: plant your feet in the sand as a wave hits you, brace yourself against it so you stay in place, then hopefully you have a sanddollar caught under your foot after the wave passes, which you can pull from the sand beneath your toes. If you can't hold still, or stay on your feet till the wave passes, then the sanddollar continues along with the tide in its wash around the ocean. But, oddly, I love this tiny collection more than the many that I caught in the past, for what it represents: my struggle. But, as William Faulkner said, man must not merely endure, but prevail.
This looks like a peaceful farm scene, doesn't it. Actually, this is a view of the Sherfy farm in Gettsyburg, one of the final battlefields of the Getsyburg Campaign in the Civil War. General Pickett (under Longstreet's command) began his assault on this day by a huge artillery bombardment that was meant to soften up the Union defense, but it didn't achieve the intended effect. Nearly 12,500 infantry men advanced over open fields for three-quarters of a mile under heavy Union artillery and rifle fire. Although some of Pickett's Confederates troups were able to breach the low stone wall that the Union soldiers were hid behind, they couldn't prevail, and lost the battle with major casualties. This defeat ended the three-day battle. Humorously, General Pickett later answered questions about why he failed at Gettsburg with the quip, "I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it."
It's all now you see. Yesterday won't be over until tomorrow and
tomorrow began ten thousand years ago. For every Southern boy fourteen years
old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not
yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in
position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the
furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and
his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill
waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the
balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't
begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and
those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead
and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all
know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't
need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time
with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland,
the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and
unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago; or to
anyone who ever sailed a skiff under a quilt sail, the moment in 1492 when
somebody thought This is it: the absolute edge of no return, to turn
back now and make home or sail irrevocably on and either find land or plunge
over the world's roaring rim. Intruder in the Dust 1948, William Faulkner
Faulkner was referring to the moments before Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg here, of course, and to the days before the discovery of America. There are these moments in all our lives, much like the fourteen year old southern boys mentioned by Faulkner, when we realize we are on the brink of eternity. We can see that we hold the future in our hands, our destiny will be revealed any moment. These moments are our "points of no return" from which we know there may be no practical going back.
Og Mandino wrote a small book titled, The Greatest Salesman in the World. In this book, he taught the principle, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." I read this book as a teenager, and was impressed to realize I was choosing my path with each decision I made, much like the steps in a flow chart. When I look back at the scene of the empty field above, I imagine the soldiers with their guns fighting and dying on this field. They are gone; the blood has disappeared from the soil, but the memory remains even to us living a century past these brave moments.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
You know, Columbus was not seeking a new world. He was seeking gold. So, it is hard to say whether his mission was a success or not. But, suffice it to say, we won. The same goes for Pickett's Charge. When the bodies were stacked and buried, and the President spoke, and surrender was declared, a country walked away from the devastation to piece together her "manifest destiny." We all won. You never know in the heat of battle how the tide is going to turn... nor in those moments before. You just know that God has the outcome in His hands. You know that either way, you win.
It's all now you see. Yesterday won't be over until tomorrow and
tomorrow began ten thousand years ago. For every Southern boy fourteen years
old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not
yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in
position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the
furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and
his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill
waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the
balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't
begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and
those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead
and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all
know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't
need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time
with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland,
the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and
unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago; or to
anyone who ever sailed a skiff under a quilt sail, the moment in 1492 when
somebody thought This is it: the absolute edge of no return, to turn
back now and make home or sail irrevocably on and either find land or plunge
over the world's roaring rim. Intruder in the Dust 1948, William Faulkner
Faulkner was referring to the moments before Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg here, of course, and to the days before the discovery of America. There are these moments in all our lives, much like the fourteen year old southern boys mentioned by Faulkner, when we realize we are on the brink of eternity. We can see that we hold the future in our hands, our destiny will be revealed any moment. These moments are our "points of no return" from which we know there may be no practical going back.
Og Mandino wrote a small book titled, The Greatest Salesman in the World. In this book, he taught the principle, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." I read this book as a teenager, and was impressed to realize I was choosing my path with each decision I made, much like the steps in a flow chart. When I look back at the scene of the empty field above, I imagine the soldiers with their guns fighting and dying on this field. They are gone; the blood has disappeared from the soil, but the memory remains even to us living a century past these brave moments.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
You know, Columbus was not seeking a new world. He was seeking gold. So, it is hard to say whether his mission was a success or not. But, suffice it to say, we won. The same goes for Pickett's Charge. When the bodies were stacked and buried, and the President spoke, and surrender was declared, a country walked away from the devastation to piece together her "manifest destiny." We all won. You never know in the heat of battle how the tide is going to turn... nor in those moments before. You just know that God has the outcome in His hands. You know that either way, you win.
