by David Melton
Memorial Day is about heroes. The kind who wear camo and engage the enemy. Graduation is also about heroes. They may not be in camo, but there is still an enemy to be engaged.
As a kid growing up, my dad and mom took us to many military cemeteries. They were teaching us kids a lesson about heroes. I distinctly remember my first trip to Arlington. When we went to Hawaii, our trip was incomplete until we had been to Punchbowl, where so many Pearl Harbor casualties were laid to rest. I’m sure that planted a seed in me that made both of our Boston study trips to Normandy so personally poignant.
I’m thankful for the brave men and women, and their families, who have served our nation and have sacrificed beyond words. But at graduation, I see heroes too, just with a slightly different nuance. I remember a dad telling me that his son was the first in their family to graduate from college. He said, “The guys in our family usually earn our living with our hands.” I knew what he meant. They were tradesmen. Heroically that dear man had born the weight of the beam, had furrowed through many a New England winter day with tired muscles. He did not work so hard to get rich and famous. His had a nobler goal — to provide for his own, the way scripture commands a dad to do.
On graduation day I see heroes in regalia. I know the stories of almost every Boston student. We have few who don’t scratch and claw and work and borrow just to manage college finances. We have students who come to us well prepared for the academic rigors of higher education. But we have others who are just relentless to make up for lost time and opportunity, having to hone their skills in the classroom and burning the midnight oil. Along the way, they heroically fight off discouragement, difficulty, and not a few heartaches and disappointments. Oh, sure there are some who go through college and it seems like a cakewalk, but most have a challenging path. I’m moved to acknowledge their accomplishment.
It’s just a great time of year to think about heroes. Heroes may carry a gun across enemy terrain, or rush off to work in the predawn hours, or refuse to quit in their ministry preparation. The term hero may be overused and misused by some, but it should never be underused. Missionaries who have served for 50 years — like the Todds and the Lyons — heroes. Servants like Bob and Ann Baird who I was so privileged to see in Springfield — heroes for sure. Those training now to engage the enemy of our souls — lots of heroes there, too — just like at Normandy or Arlington or the Punchbowl Cemetery on Oahu, and like the great parents who took me there, and taught and showed me what being heroic really is.