Veterans Day

The reading of this in the film My Boy Jack always brings home Veterans Day and the risks and costs behind it: 

It's been said that the problem with 'Nothing to kill for' is that it is inevitably followed by 'Nothing to die for', which is a backhanded way of saying 'Nothing in this universe more important than me'.  As foundational as this is for our post-war secularized liberal society, it's antithetical to not just core Christian values, but the values shared by most of humanity throughout most of time.  

Yet when we see things like Veterans Day or Memorial Day or even the daily sacrifice or risk people take to help or save others, I notice that our kneejerk reaction is seldom 'what an idiot.'  No, we usually, almost instinctively, cheer them on or remember those who have served or sacrificed with reverence.  From the top of our pop culture down.

So it's almost as if, despite the uber-narrative that I must love me first, think of me first, prioritize me first, and heaven forbid think there is anything out there worth dying for - we really don't believe it.  Just what it says about a society whose formal instructions aren't even believed by those instructing us, I don't know.  I just know when days like this come along, it never seems to mesh with the usual tripe we hear from our best and brightest about how the greatest love of all is the love I should have for myself, everything else being a distant second.