Garibaldi, Hardships, and Us

I do not promise you ease. I do not promise you comfort. But I do promise you
these: hardship, weariness, and suffering. And with them, I promise you victory.

I so admire these words uttered by Giuseppe Garibaldi, father of the Italian unification in 1860. (I especially admire honest leaders who tell what is true rather than what people want to hear.) So often in recent years, I have wondered and doubted if our nation still produced men (and women) with such courage as those who willingly followed Garibaldi into hardship because of a greater potential prize.

I am glad to have been wrong. Regardless of one's opinion of the war itself, I think all can agree that the young men and women, part of an all volunteer army in Iraq, have shown again and again that we still have guts and virtue. I think especially of the heroism of the young man who saw a young girl playing near a mine and, concluding that she was about to die, cast her aside and threw himself on the mine in her place. The words of Jesus ring in my ears, "No greater love has a man than this than to lay down his life for his friends." That little girl may not have known she was his friend, but surely there is no doubt in her mind now. Yes, there are still young people willing to endure hardship, weariness, and suffering for a higher good.

But this is not about the war in Iraq. It's about acknowledging and facing hardships and suffering in our own lives and not shying away from them but forging on to victory (or at least to an honorable defeat).

Hardship, weariness, and suffering. Nothing to look forward to. But nothing worth anything comes cheaply.