The audacity to serve. Do you have it? – SCN Encourager, Memorial Day 2014

I’m asking you because I don’t know what I’d say.

I’m not sure I’ve “got it.”

So, friend, be ready to step in and bail me out.

You see, every Memorial Day we honor the service of the “audacious” men and women who died defending our freedoms.

They risked boldly.

They put it on the line.

They sacrificed for us all the way to the trumpet’s final call.

I realize you know this… I’m the one who’s going round and round here, not you.

I just know I should be more mindful about (aka: more grateful to) the “audacious” men and women who courageously walked our nation’s principled talk.

Too often I just go about daily life wearing only my see-only-what-I-want-to-see blinders. (I wear a few clothes, too, of course. But my blinders are probably the most fashionable things I own.)

Usually you can find me up at the front of the pack moving right along in lock-step with those who tap into freedom’s benefits without ever really taking the time to calculate its true costs.

Kinda dumb, huh?

I get it, but I still struggle with how to improve it.

What’s the best way for me to show an appreciative heart?

Is waving a small flag as the Memorial Day parade passes by enough?  (And it may just be… especially as it encourages the marchers and band members along the route!)

And here’s even a bigger challenge on my mind this Memorial Day –

What can we do to honor this soldier?

And all of the other “unknowns?”

I guess one way for us – our tribe of school leaders and communicators – to honor and remember all of the “unknowns” this Memorial Day would be for us to elevate something we’re already pretty darn good at — addressing our “knowns.”

Wouldn’t you agree that it’s possible for us to honor our “unknowns” by re-focusing and re-committing ourselves to a few of our higher priority “knowns?”

For example, we “know” we’re active participants in one of the most noble causes on earth – the education of our children.

What an awesome responsibility.

There’s certainly no lack of available opportunities in this arena for us to be “audacious” in promoting the great work of our schools, is there?

So, keep doing what you do (OK, maybe just a smudge better…) and I’ll try to catch up!

Let’s not retreat from any future moment where the audacity to act upon what’s right and good is required.

The “unknowns” sure didn’t.

Enjoy an audacious Memorial Day with your family and loved ones.

Tom Page, SCN