What makes a patriot? I suppose it all depends on when one is born and where one is born. In this day and age, are heroes made simply by putting on the uniform? Does behavior count for naught?
I was an air force officer. Honestly, I dreaded being one, but circumstances being what they were with my family, it was absolutely required if college was going to be an option. Well, an option if I didn’t want to spend my entire high school life applying for scholarships. So, I would be an Air Force nurse. I could’ve been an army or navy nurse, but I look best in blue. So, I spent 4 years learning, growing, and resenting. Looking back, the resentment was flat out stupid. I didn’t know any other nurse my age running her own clinic, and, yet, there I was in mine: managing personnel and staffing, managing a supply budget, managing/triaging patients. It was a fabulous job, and I wasn’t even 25 yet. Seriously, I think you have to be at least 10 years past the experience to view how amazing the job/relationship/____________ was.
But I would never presume to call myself a hero. Yep, let’s toss that word over onto our pile of words excruciatingly over used. I think it joins “deserves,” and one or two others that aren’t centered in my mind this early this morning. But that still leaves us dealing with “hero?” Does one have to die while serving their (our) country? No, I wouldn’t go that far.
My brother knew from the time he could talk that he wanted to be a soldier. And for the past 22 years it’s been his life. God, Family, Country. I don’t know even half of what he’s done or who he’s been. But I believe whole-heartedly that he is the type of man that I would refer to as a “hero” and a “patriot,” though he would fully disagree. He knows fully what is at stake, and, yet, he would make the decision every time, to leave no man behind. M’s not an easy man, but that rock hard shell allows him to be the one to make the kind of decision to bring everyone home every single time. And he’s married to a woman, J, who has always understood. So, in my mind, even while she wears her own AF stripes and chevrons, been deployed herself, it’s the staying married to my brother through the ups and down that makes her a hero, too.
So, if merely serving this country at a time when we have an all-voluntary force doesn’t make one a “hero” or a “patriot,” what is that step that pushes you over the edge, free-falling into heroism and patriotism? Patriotism lends itself to definition much easier: loving your country, this country – that’s the sole requirement. Then, when you find yourself wondering if life would be better somewhere else, look at that country’s laws, look at how their people live. (Weird random fact, if you ride around Barbados and notice that even the most elaborate homes have left a shutter or a door unpainted, it’s because property tax only applies to the ‘finished’ homes.) Then raise Old Glory and watch it snap in the wind with pride, and you, my friend, are a patriot.
So, “hero?” I imagine heroism is determined by how you live your life. Would you surrender your life for someone else? Anyone else? Would you be the kind of man or woman who would leave no one behind? Would you knowingly put yourself in the line of fire to protect a stranger? I’m sure there must be other definitions, better definitions of heroism. But, I’m the one writing; so, please enjoy my definitions.
Heroism and patriotism never grow old.
The Unexpected Life 