Meditations on Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Reformation Day, and Boyhood

      Yesterday I was walking through a building at my college to the student activities office. I wanted to submit my letter to the school newspaper, and as I was walking out I noticed a decoration that said "Happy Turkey Day". Turkey Day? Seriously, have we secularized Thanksgiving to the point that the only non-offensive aspect is eating turkey? (I might point out that this is offensive to vegetarians). I've lately noticed these discrepancies more blatantly than other years. Last month Reformation Day came around (on the same day as Halloween) and few of my Christian friends had heard of it, let alone secular acquaintances. I was disappointed. Two weeks later was another day that I grew up observing with religious dedication. Veterans Day. I actually went to school wearing a jacket and tie with a big American flag tie clip on it. When asked why, I replied "Why, it's Veterans Day! Respect!" I was disappointed when my school had no observance, nor did anyone else really remember it's occurrence on the 11th. Seeing the "Turkey Day" decoration made me come to a realization: I am the last of a dying breed.

       I guess it makes sense to go in order of the holidays: Halloween. We (my family and I) never really had any sort of formal celebration- we would go to a friends house and hand out tracts with candy. Mom might make sloppy joes since it was a tradition in her family. That was the extent of it. We knew about Reformation day, but we never really had much of a celebration of it until a few years ago when we first saw the film "Luther". Enjoying it very much, we started a informal tradition on Reformation Sunday that isn't really concrete, but we always discuss the Reformation, Luther, Calvin, Tyndale, so on and so fourth.
       Veterans Day. My grandfather loaded bombs onto B-25 Mitchells in the Pacific during World War Two, my great uncle died in the pacific, and several of my other relatives and close friends have served or are serving in the armed forces. Veterans Day was always a big deal. I began the day by getting out of bed and getting into to combat clothing, going outside, and running around our woods fighting Germans, Japanese, or Muslims (post-9-11). There has always been a ceremony down the street from where we live where my dad would give the invocation. We would always dress up and attend- I'd always get chills up my spine throughout the ceremony, and it ended by me walking up to veterans and thanking them for what they'd done for me.
      Thanksgiving. My parents are lovers of history. That's probably why my brother has a bachelors in it, and neither of us had to take any college classes in it (we took tests for credit instead). The story of Thanksgiving is one of the first stories we ever learned, and it was always crystal clear: Pilgrims leave England; Pilgrims come to America; Pilgrims suffer; Pilgrims overcome; Pilgrims give thanks to God for his providence (and invite Indians). Well, as I grew older I realized that what I was told was quite different than the beliefs of modern academia. They're version goes a little like this: Pilgrims are snobs, so they leave England; Pilgrims are stupid, so they starve; Pilgrims are bigots; Indians are saints; Indians help Pilgrims; Pilgrims have a feast to thank Indians for helping them. To celebrate this historical event we eat turkey on Thursday and go to bed early so we can get up early on Friday to spend ourselves in poverty. In MY home we had a traditional meal, went around the table and said what we were thankful to God for, and then watched Miracle on 34th Street (it's an old black and white movie my parents grew up watching).
      Now, I realize that not all families are the same, and culture shift isn't always a bad thing, but the state of our culture and especially the state of modern boyhood greatly concerns me. I teach Sunday school, and up until this semester I was an AWANA counselor working with 3rd and 4th grade boys. I was always sad to hear the lack of interesting things that the boys did. They watched TV, they played video games. I won't say that I didn't do either of those things when I was their ages, but I did a lot more, and I don't mean just playing sports. Here are some of the big differences I've noticed: Nowadays boys spend the majority of their free time looking at some sort of screen. When I was younger I spent the majority of my free time outdoors. The heroes of boys these days are predominately fictional (with the exception of athletes). My greatest heroes growing up were most all real people- Davey Crockett, Miles Standish, Jedediah Smith, George Washington, Martin Luther, etc.. Lately I've noticed that parents seem to be very strict in even letting their boys adventure through the woods and fields of our beautiful state. I guess it doesn't really matter because I'm not sure if they'd really have an interest anyway. When I was the same age I spent countless hours with friends back in the woods of our property building forts, playing with toy guns, and exploring. The last and most concerning for me is respect. Maybe it's just that I was smaller, but I definitely get the impression that when I attended Veterans/Memorial Day as a young boy, there were far more in attendance. I remember other boys my age who were brought by their parents because they wanted to instill a sense of respect for those have given their lives for us. Today I look around and there are so few who attendance, let alone boys.

    I very could be the last of a dying breed in the sense that America no longer values what I grew up valuing. I don't know what God's plan is for my life- whether he will give me a family and the opportunity to raise any boys of my own, but if He does, I know exactly the qualities I would hope for them to mirror- those that my parents instilled in me: namely respect. In the meantime I will encourage boys to get off the couch, play with some plastic soldiers, go build a fort, or just go on an adventure!