Facing our biggest fears

(my recent ride in a hot air balloon)

Dad was a D-Day veteran of World War II; a member of what is often referred to as The Great Generation . . . the one that saved the world from tyranny on both sides of the globe, then came home and built America into the greatest economic, military, and cultural superpower the world has ever known.

About a year after Dad passed, I saw the movie, ‘Saving Private Ryan’. I wept uncontrollably. I wish Dad been there for me to hug and to thank. Until I saw the first twenty minutes of the movie, I had no idea what it was like for those soldiers on that beach.

And I still don’t.

None of us know what such an experience is like. Until we do what they did.

Until we stare death in the face on a battlefield.