WEST POINT

Blessed and thankful once again. Arlena and I recently returned from a bus tour that took us to many Revolutionary War sites in New York and New England where the War really got started. We began, however, at the site that was, in essence, the end of the War, namely Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh, New York. Then we headed to what was one of the later results of that War: West Point.

Thomas Jefferson, almost immediately after his inauguration, directed that plans begin to establish a military academy at West Point, West Point being a strategic site overlooking the Hudson River during the War. Our stop there was probably the highlight of the tour, at least for me. What I remember most was one of the first things I laid my eyes on. We walked into the Visitor’s Center. I looked up and on the wall were pictures of five alumni in their cadet uniforms: Ulysses Grant, John Joseph Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight David Eisenhower and Omar Nelson Bradley. Wow!

Perhaps for my children and grandchildren these names mean very little. Even for me on a personal level there is little connection. The wars these men fought in and led were over before I learned about them. Eisenhower was President during most of my teenage years but there was no real connection. And there still is not. But that is not the point and that is not what made me stand there in awe as I looked up at their portraits.

No one knew, not even these men themselves, how their lives would turn out after they graduated and entered the military. They could not even have imagined it. Yes, they may have dreamed of becoming a general or leading a great army into battle as they were completing their studies, but those would only be dreams. My guess is that when they looked back on their careers, even then they could not believe who that young cadet in that picture became.

And then I thought of my children and especially my grandchildren, none of whom at this point in their lives has a similar photograph. They’re still too young. And then I thought of myself and my college graduation picture. Yes, I had a pretty good idea what my life would be like, dressed in my seminary cassock. But even those thoughts and dreams, in hindsight, were way off the mark.

Real life always gets in the way of our dreams and plans and expectations. It is what we do with that life as it comes our way that is important. Grant failed in almost everything he did until he became General of the Army of the Potomac. Eisenhower was a fun-loving cadet who once showed up for roll-call without his pants and who graduated in the middle of his class. Who knew?

Who knows about what life will bring? No one, that’s who. But what we do know is that, dreams notwithstanding, if we do the best we can each day, we’ll be okay.  Okay?