The Marshall Plan

 

We don't have any statues of Abraham Lincoln in our town, but we do have a statue of General George C. Marshall, so I decided to visit him on my walk this morning. His house is on one of my usual routes, and I go there a lot because there are big trees and a beautiful rose garden, and you're allowed to wander around the grounds, but I'm usually the only one who does it that early in the morning, so I have the place to myself.

This is what Mrs. Marshall's rose garden looks like right now, but wait until it's in bloom. 

All the varieties of roses have names. 

The water in the rose garden's bird bath is completely frozen now, and I think the ice looks like a rose!

Anyway, General Marshall knew a few things about victory in the face of difficulty and danger. Here are a couple of things he had to say:

"It is not enough to fight. It is the spirit which we bring to the fight that decides the issue. It is morale that wins the victory."

"Morale is the state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty. It is elan, esprit de corps and determination."

Then there's this, from my neighbor, Greg.

The sun came up again today. We get to choose how to proceed.

I choose to proceed with steadfastness, courage, hope, confidence, zeal, loyalty, elan, esprit de corps, and determination.

FYI, a military base in San Antonio recently (last week) decided to scrap information about the Tuskegee Airmen from its training materials, because, and I can only guess, teaching about the accomplishments of Black people is woke or DEI or something? Anyway, there was such backlash, that they have returned the materials to the course. A small victory, but proof that sometimes change is still possible. As my mom likes to say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Keep speaking up. Do not give up. Our kids are counting on us.

There's a link to the Indivisible Guide over in the link list if you need ideas and inspiration.

Onward.