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June 7, 2004 - Memorial Day Weekend
"June 7
If anybody finds this notebook, please send it to my father, Mr. James Collins, care of the Norfolk and Western Railway, Roanoke, Virginia.
I do not think I am going to make it through this fighting. It is too rough. When we came in I thought the whole world was falling apart. The sea was choppy and tossing everybody around, and some of the guys were throwing up. The noise was like the worst thunderstorm you had ever heard, but instead of being up in the sky it was all around you. It was more than all around, it was inside of us. Me, Bobby Joe, Alonzo, Mikey and Eddie Plummer were together in the assault boat. The boats formed a circle until they were ready to hit the beach. My mouth went dry. Bobby Joe patted my arm and I took his hand and shook it. His hand was soaking wet."
From The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins, Scholastic, Inc. p. 14
My grandfather fought in World War I. He kept a journal like this. I think he killed at least two of the "enemy". My dad says he came back a changed man. All I know is that he kept to himself and pretty much never talked to anyone for all the years I knew him. I think of him every Memorial Day weekend. And that makes me think about what it means to be a good American, one whose presence moves this country in the direction of the land of the free and the home of the brave.
From a Buddhist perspective, I propose that three characteristics or attributes, manifested, make up a, what the heck I'm going to go for the gold here, noble American. They are: responsibility, humility and gratitude. Before I talk about each one a reminder: this path is about doing your best with the cards you've been dealt. So way back when Zen Master Dogen was teaching young monks in China how to cook a delicious meal he would tell them that they would never be able to completely control the ingredients they had to work with. Instead their job was to concentrate on providing the best meal possible with the ingredients they had. The same is true here. Being a noble American doesn't mean waiting until we have three weeks to volunteer for a political campaign, or for when the children are grown, or until our relationship is settled. It means giving ourselves, our families, our communities and ultimately our country the best "us" we can conjure up today. And tomorrow. And the next day.
Responsibility starts with being responsible to ourselves. We need to take care of our bodies and minds. This means sleeping. And quiet. And, mostly, healthy foods. Exercise. Keeping the precepts or an equivalent code of ethics. How can we be responsible to anyone or anything else if we aren't responsible to ourselves first. Next comes the family. Even if we don't love our families we are still responsible to them, to help where and when we can. I have a sister who hasn't spoken to me for ten years. I still don't know why. If she needed a roof over her head, I'd find one for her. Because family is family.
We are responsible to our communities, to keep them clean and safe. And, as Americans, we are responsible to our country --- to understand what is going on in Iraq and in our own cities, and to do what we can to end the harm being done as we breathe. Maybe that means running for political office, maybe it means voting for the first time, maybe it means giving up a small pleasure so we can make a donation to a candidate or cause we believe in. Maybe I can't improve the prison system in this country in this lifetime but I can be the best friend my prisoner pen pal ever had. I can write to him every week and send him books and pray for him, hard. This counts. At least there is one American who hasn't completely abandoned him. Total time spent per week? Two hours. I can afford it.
Humility. Nobody is perfect. The mark of a noble American is someone who admits his or her mistakes. Quickly. Publicly if that is what is needed. And makes things right if at all possible. Humility means that no job is below any of us. Period. Buddha once passed the hut of a monk deathly ill with dysentery. His robes were a mess. So was he. His hut was so putrid that people covered their noses if they were within a football stadium distance of him. Buddha's reaction was to go into the hut himself to clean the man and his little house and when he was done to shout at the other monks for not taking care of their dharma brother. How dare they? To refuse to help is like your right hand refusing to clean your dirty left hand because, hey, it isn't your right hand's problem. Not okay. Regarding humility, sometimes I think my job is to say "I'm sorry" as often and as publicly as possible so the people around me can see that it doesn't kill me to apologize…not even lightening through an eyeball.
Gratitude. On holidays like Memorial Day we are exhorted to be proud to be Americans. But pride is a slippery slope. When I looked for a teaching on pride in the sutras, I couldn't find one. Nada. Lots on gratitude. None on pride. Because pride is a small step away from chauvinism, from arrogance. Both harm. Neither is noble. Instead, let's be grateful. Let's be grateful that we have street lights that work, the right to vote, to complain, to send our children to school, to read. I for one am grateful that I live in a country that has the technology to make it possible for 65 million of us to vote in a single mom with an attitude as our newest American Idol ….. because she deserved it and not because we were bribed or harassed.
Gratitude creates the energy we need to be responsible to ourselves, our families, our country. Humility helps us to hold on to that energy. These three attributes are timeless and powerful and can help a world that needs it, to heal. They can help us to remember how much we mean to each other and how hungry we are for a nation that is filled with freedom, honor, and a recognition of each person as precious. Our country, the one we call home, deserves all three.
