DRAWING A LINE IN WATER

Drawing a line in the sand is different than drawing a line in the dirt.

Sand is related to the beach, dirt is everywhere.

One line lasts until the next tide, the other until the next rain.

As you can see both are affected by water.

But why draw a line in the first place?

Let’s say you’ve got something bothering you so much you can’t stand it anymore.

You’ve had enough and the last time is the last time you’ll take it.

So you draw a line and anyone who crosses it disappears.

If that’s the plan then you’ve got problems.

The only time people disappear is when you disappear.

When is the last time you said, “go away,” and got results?

From what I’ve seen, people don’t just ‘go away,’ but you can.

You can go away, run away, hide away; you can fly away, drive away, walk away.

It’s easier telling others what to do instead of doing it yourself.

I’ve heard a friend call another friend with, “I’m opting out of our friendship.”

They were drawing a line.

It wasn’t me doing either the talking or the listening. I was the eavesdropper.

Is ‘opting out of friendship’ even a thing?

I thought of it as something people who don’t have friends might say.

The response to opting out? “Let me know when you opt back in.”

 

Opting In

Although the idea may be new, opting in on anything is a choice.

Do you know what you’ve opted into?

Baby boomers get credit, or accused, of opting into things they hadn’t thought of.

As children of the Sixties the entire generation got painted with the same brush.

Irresponsible hippies, kids with more money than sense, giving the nation doubts about the future.

That was the theme I remember from the times, but I was an innocent bystander in a small town.

I was an eighth grader in junior high in 1969, not a prime age to get my rebellion on, but I gave it a try and got grounded for a whole summer.

For what?

For leaving the house without telling, and coming home late and lying about where I’d been.

I took the punishment for lying the first time but stuck to my story.

The next afternoon I did the same thing, ran off without telling, came home late, and lied about where I’d been.

Except this time there was no punishment, just grounding.

My parents argued when one of them believed my bullshit, which made me feel bad.

I knew I was in trouble, knew neither of them believed me, but one pretended to.

I think it was tough on their marriage.

They were drawing a line.

That was my big summer of ’69.

Oh, when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Yeah, I’d always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life

 

I like looking back as a writer. It’s a good personal history lesson.

 

June 6, 1944 D-Day History Class

This is for the youths in the audience.

 

The Silent Generation	1928-1945	80-97 years old
Baby Boomers	1946-1964	61-79 years old
Gen X	1965-1980	45-60 years old
Millennials	1981-1996	29-44 years old
Gen Z	1997-2012	13-28 years old
Gen Alpha	Early 2010s-2024	1-approx. 12 years old
Gen Beta	2025-2039

 

June 6, 1944 is called D-Day, the Allied invasion of Fortress Europe in WWII.

It was a big deal, the biggest day in the history of the world. How did it happen?

For context, think of the strong young men you’ve known getting shot to pieces on a foreign beach.

The captain of the football team, the all-American wrestler, the valedictorian.

They all got into the war.

They didn’t all get out.

These many years past D-Day come with revisions and interpretations.

From my history major point of view, from my decades of historical work and writing, but mainly from Army veteran’s point of view, this is D-Day:

 

It could have been you in the water on the Normandy beaches.

It could have been you in Dieppe.

 

In England, Albert Kirby and other Canadian survivors were left to deal with the aftermath of Dieppe.

“What a mixture of feeling went through my body surveyed the shambles throughout the harbour. So relieved to be home. So happy to be in one piece. So ashamed to have come home alone. So proud of the way the Camerons went to their deaths. So sad that they seemed to have been wasted.

So angry that I was even a part of something so confusing, and apparently unrewarding, without even knowing what I was doing or exactly where I had been.”

 

It could have been you at Slapton Sands.

 

Historians are unclear on the number of victims, in the end, but all agree that the death toll approached or exceeded 700, more than would die in the actual landings at Utah Beach some five weeks later.

 

Imagine going to a ten year high school reunion and seeing a long list on the wall of the departed.

The list is long at a fiftieth reunion based on aging up and out.

The lists at reunions in the fifties had to be hard to read.

But for the luck of timing any of our names could have been on that list.

Find a way to show respect for what has passed, and seek education to prevent it ever happening again.

That’s the picture, now put yourself in it.

You’re old enough to draw a line.