Life, Lives, and Living

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Life, Lives, Living

March 2016

by Michael O’Brien

I’m working on the twin monitors today, building digital models of historical constructions on one, keeping up with email on the other. The office I have is cozy I guess you’d say, and I can hear pretty much everything that gets said for the next two offices down the line, so I wear headphones usually while I work. Not that the conversations my fellow faculty have are uninteresting, but it’s hard to work while they talk so I wear the headphones and listen to music. I was listening to John Williams’ compositions for the film Saving Private Ryan as I built stud walls and windows and siding, and of course the music is powerful, very powerful if you pair the music with memories of the film.

The ending of the film is what most popped into my mind. The scene has Private Ryan, now an older man, with children and grandchildren at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. A very moving place; if you can afford the trip across the ocean, I highly recommend it. The French keep it pristine, not a blade of grass out of place, and you can tell from the body language and hushed tones that every visitor knows what the men and women buried here did in the name of freedom. In the movie, the elder Ryan finds the grave marker for Captain John Miller, the Ranger sent to bring Ryan back to be sent home as the only surviving son in his family. Ryan finds the marker and speaks to it saying he hopes the life he lived was worth the cost paid by John Miller and his squad. As the scene closes, Ryan is moved to tears, his wife comes to his side and he asks her to tell him he’s lived a good life and is a good man.

It’s a question.

We do the best we can. But we never know if it is enough. Sometimes things happen in life, things that cost someone else their life, and as we visit them, as we remember them, we wonder, have I paid this back? Can I ever pay this back? And of course we don’t know; we’ll never know. Looking out across the sea of crosses, stars and crescents at the American Cemetery and Memorial, I had that in mind. Am I doing enough to pay them back?

This time of year is typically a hard one for our family: towards the end of the month, I’ll be remembering Tyler Binsted, a young man killed at my daughter’s side for refusing a gunman’s order to get in the trunk of a car with my daughter. He said no and they started walking away; they shot him in the back, she tried to get help, ran back to where he fell, where the shooter was, to try and help, but he had passed. A few days afterwards, my mom passed as well; I wasn’t there. You can’t be everywhere all the time I guess. But am I doing enough for them?

Live a good life (not to be confused with “the” good life).

Be fair.
Be honest.
Be honorable.
Help those in need.
Work hard.

It might be all we can do. I hope it’s enough.

Be good to each other.
Look after each other.

enough