In his narrative concerning his experiences as a soldier, “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” Tim O’Brien remembers the day he boarded an aircraft out of Vietnam, leaving the battlegrounds that would certainly never ever leave him.
O’Brien climbed up the 18 actions to the airplane, his automobile of delivery. He waited for the dramatization that everybody stated would certainly engulf him. It never ever did.
“You add things up,” he composes. “Fear is paralysis, but it is better to be afraid than to move out to die, all limbs functioning and heart thumping and charging and having your chest torn open for all the work; you have to pick the times not to be afraid, but when you are afraid, you must hide it to save respect and reputation.”
To hesitate is not to cringe, as O’Brien mentions. It is a reality of life, as regular as breathing.
We honor our veterans today, the problem they took on, the are afraid …