Never forget

Have you ever read a history book and thought, "Well, this is just boring,"?

Most of us have, because, let's face it, history books sometimes are very boring.

One day, I was thinking about the men and women in my history books. I was reading Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking People, which is sometimes an incredibly boring take on history, especially for those of us who are not really all the interested in hearing about the politics as much as just hearing a basic story.

But the politics are part of that history, just as much as the random little stories that we hear about our ancestors.

I remember when 9/11 happened. I was in school, I was only 5 years old. All the light were turned off, and the only thing that was still on was the television in my classroom, and it was turned on to the news. My teacher was staring at the screen and the fear on her face was evident. Some of the other kids were crying, even though none of us really understood what was going on.

A lot of people remember 9/11, we all have our story to tell about where we were. 

Did you ever stop to think that we just witnessed history happening? That will be in the history books, it was a big deal.

But you know, it a hundred years, I bet little kids will hear that story, read the facts, and think, "Well, this is just boring."

But we, who lived through it, who hear the eye witness accounts, who watched it happening, live, some of us first hand, who listened to the crying men and women as they told their stories of who they lost, we know what it was like to live through it.

When I read the Hunger Games (yes, I know, I mention the HG a lot, but it's one of my all time favorites), I got sucked into the stories. I felt Katniss's pain, every death that sent her to tears had me crying too, when she suffered, I felt it. She went through so much to defend those that she loved, even though she didn't really want to. She lost so much, she had to make decisions that were almost impossible, she had to live with the fact that hundreds died because of one little thing that she did, when she almost ate those berries. She woke up, screaming with nightmares, even years later, sometimes unable to cope with the things she had seen.

It made me think, that must have been what it was like for people during the civil war. Knowing they had blood on their hands, but having to march onward to protect those that they loved. 

When you think about history, you think about a list of dates that certain events happened.

The Civil war, fought between 1861-1865.

That is just a fact, passed down as a date that something important happened.

But think about the women who's husbands died in that battle, now left with their children to fend for themselves in a difficult world. 

Think about the young men, left bleeding to death on the ground as their fellow soldiers fight and fall near them, unable to aid their fallen companion.

Think about having the gun in your hand that shoots the bullet that enters another man's rib cage. The pain on his face is obvious, but he is your enemy, and you cannot leave him alive. He falls to the ground at your feet, still alive, but not for long. You take his life, and that blood is forever going to stain your hands.

Think about afterwards. Trying to sleep, but the faces of those who's lives you have taken haunt your dreams, their last moments playing over and over again in your head.

This was the price they paid for our freedom.

Next time you read or listen to history, don't think about how boring it is. You are listening to the passed down stories of the lives and deaths of those who have gone before us. While you may not agree with anything and everything they did in their lives, just think, they were once a living, breathing, human being like you. They had crushes, they enjoyed certain foods, they had things that brought them joy, games they played, habits they tried to break. 

These are the preserved stories of those who have died, sometimes defending your freedom, other times trying to take it. Sometimes, they were just a person trying to live out their lives in peace and unfortunate circumstances drove them to their deaths.

Cherish every moment of life that God has blessed you with. In the grand scheme of things, we may seem small and insignificant, we may never make into a history book, but we are helping make that history. Everything we do forms the future, it's a big responsibility.

Don't forget those who died to defend you. Don't think that what they did was small and unimportant, because nothing is small and unimportant, everything they did helped make history.

Cheers!