To My Magnificent Agents, Staff and Friends:
As is often the case, the inspiration for this week’s Motivation came early in the week with one word that kept springing into my consciousness. The word was “sacrifice.” I guess there are a number of reasons why this particular word permeated my thoughts. I think the primary reason is the book I have reading over the past couple of weeks. It is Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption. The book was authored by Laura Hillenbrand, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Seabiscuit.
The second reason “sacrifice” rode to the top of my Motivation topics is related. Next Monday is Memorial Day. Like most Americans, I will be taking advantage of the long holiday weekend for a family outing to the beaches of south Florida. In fact, I will take a respite from my weekly message next Friday due to our sojourn.
The last cause for the influence of this word, “sacrifice” is my fear that, collectively, not individually, I wonder if we have lost our ability to comprehend, coalesce and embrace the ideal of national self-sacrifice in facing our country’s perilous and dire financial future.
Let me try as briefly as possible to tie these all together.
The first is easy. The story of Louis Zamperini as told by Laura Hillenbrand is a harrowing tale of the horror of war and the sacrifices endured by our brave men and women who serve in our armed forces. It also speaks poignantly to the sacrifice endured by the families of our soldiers. If you haven’t, you should read this book. In fact, it would be an ideal way to spend your Memorial Day weekend. Without spoiling the story, here is a brief biography of Louis Zamperini taken from his website.
By the end of High School, Louis had become a world class runner, setting a world high school record in the mile. He qualified to run on the 1936 Olympic team by tying the world record holder in the 5000 meter run. At the Games in Berlin, he was America’s top finisher in the event, covering the final lap in an astounding 56 seconds.
Following the Games, he enrolled and competed for the University of Southern California (USC) as a part of many national record breaking teams. Many claim Zamperini would have broken the four-minute mile had he not elected to retire from the sport and join the U.S. Air Corps as a bombardier in the South Pacific during World War II.
On a routine reconnaissance run in search of a downed U.S. bomber crew, his aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean, and Louis and another crew member survived in a life raft for 47 days, drifting 2000 miles, into Japanese controlled waters. His rescuers were also his torturers, as the Japanese put Louis into a series of prison camps. One particular guard wanted to make an example of the eternally optimistic Olympic runner, and for two years the guard tried to break Louis’ spirit with verbal and physical cruelty.
Louis outlasted the guard, and when the war ended, Louis returned to Torrance, California to a hero’s welcome. He partied with celebrities and married a debutante, but his life was spinning out of control due to a lack of direction. It was a chance meeting of the young evangelist, Billy Graham, inside a revival tent that changed Louis’ life for good. He decided to become a missionary to Japan, preaching the gospel of forgiveness to the very guards who had tormented him during the war. His book, “Devil at My Heels” was an astounding record of Louis’ life. Upon his return to the States, Louis created the Victory Boys Camp for wayward youth, where he taught other juvenile delinquents the skills to succeed in life, while he and his wife, Cynthia, raised two children of their own.
In 1998, the Olympic Winter Games were held in Nagano, Japan, just outside the town where Louis had been held captive. The people of Nagano asked Louis to carry the Olympic flame as part of the torch relay, and the host broadcaster (CBS) created a 45-minute feature about Louis’ life, that aired during the telecast of the Closing Ceremony.
This story and the accompanying interview reignited interest in Louis’ life, eventually leading Laura Hillenbrand (the Pulitzer Prize winning author of “Seabiscuit”) to document Louis’ life in her latest book, “Unbroken” (Simon & Schuster, 2010).
Today, at 93 years of age, Louis is still spry and full of life.
He lectures audiences across the globe, on how to deal with stress, the meaning of Olympism and the freedom he found through a personal relationship with God.
Tying Zamperini’s story to the importance of our remembering what the true purpose of Memorial Day is all about is certainly no stretch. It has been said time and again that the unique freedoms we enjoy do not come without a price. However, most of us cannot deny that we routinely take for granted the many liberties we enjoy as Americans. Memorial Day is one day that we shouldn’t. It is a day for deep reflection and acknowledgement of the fact that our freedoms have all been earned through the ultimate sacrifice paid by the brave citizen soldiers of armed forces. Memorial Day is one of those “holidays of opportunity” that should remind us that freedom is not given away and our national security is not achieved without sacrifice. Might I be so bold as to suggest that on this coming Memorial Day, amid your trip to the lake, beach, shopping or back-yard barbeque, stop by any cemetery for a moment and note the many little U.S. flags adorning the graves and in doing so, remember that without those men and women who now rest under those thousands of flags found throughout this great nation and abroad, we could be living today in a land where we would be in constant fear of someone knowing our name and coming to take us away just because we were of a different race or religion or we disagree with the prevailing power.
Lastly, today, we Americans face as true an enemy as we’ve faced in the wars of past and present. This time, however, our brave men and women in the armed force cannot help us, for the enemy isn’t a foreign power or a terrorist group. The enemy is us. We have set a standard for ourselves that we can no longer maintain. We have allowed, through years of living beyond our means, a debt and deficit economy to become our minimum expectation. It has now reached such a level of crisis that within a decade it will unravel the entire fabric of this great nation and, in doing so, tear our people apart.
This is not a democrat party or republican party problem. We all share blame going back decades. It is an American problem. It is a threat to all of us and it is very real. Now is the time when we all must resist the traditional selfish call to protect our own self-interest at the cost of confronting, addressing and vanquishing this insidious enemy that seeks to destroy our great nation. It is the time for every American to abandon self-interest in favor of self-sacrifice. All of us, regardless of class, demographic, station or political persuasion must sit down collectively at the table and be willing to sacrifice and contribute to win this war. We have what it takes, because we are all made of the same metal as our brave citizen soldiers. The question is, do we have the will to sacrifice what we are today for what our children and grandchildren will become?
A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.
Mohandas Gandhi
May God continue to bless America and may we all remember those who gave their all for our freedom this coming Memorial Day.
Have an AWE-full Weekend!
Bill