We walked up to the beach in a solemn procession. You could cut the silence with a knife. In the distance we saw the remains of the artificial harbours. We turned to face the bunker on the bluff that faced the beach. Although 2010 was a distance from 1944 the bunkers still brought a chill to us especially as we walked through the bunkers and touched the very guns that were still in place.
We walked up to that spot where ,in 1944, men ducked and took cover as the machine gun rounds kept popping off and taking out soldier after soldier. Hundreds and thousands died where we walked and stood.
I picked up a rock laying on the sand. I rolled it around in my hand as I searched for the vibration in the stone to take me back to the images of Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.
A sacred spot. A cemetery of memories. Every thing that could have gone wrong that day on Omaha did and yet destiny was calling.
The motto was Assess, Adapt, Overcome.
Day after day we walked, learned and studied the lessons of Normandy, D Day, Omaha, Utah and the other beaches in the battle.
Heroic efforts. Selfless deeds. The names of men riveted in my mind.
So much happened here. Such sacrifice.
A generation was molded on these beaches.
I will write more about our journey in the coming entries but let us say here that the motto is still relevant in any personal or professional effort.
Assess, Adapt, Overcome. An honest effort. How are we shaped. Do events shape us or do we shape events.
What is sacrifice. What is worth giving your life up for. Under what circumstances do you say…this I die for. Final, irreversible, total. One decision and then..done.
Omaha Beach was such a day. D Day.
We travelled back in time to find ourselves again. Maybe finding ourselves for the first time.
Trivial fills the day and parades as not trivial. But we know it is. But not on June 6, 1944. The longest day. At the end of that day it was the beginning of the end for one side or the other.
We walked the cemetery. Read the names. Wandered the villages. The names: Soldiers, such as Joseph Beyrle whose name we saw on a church and heard his story, have become people I want to study and learn from.
Ageless. Timeless. No small, petty issues here. A life worth living.
Can we say that at the end. Can we say…this was a life worth living…no matter how short it may be.
An ageless experiment.