I collect witty sayings for the treasures they are. Some are down home, like: “I been to two county fairs and a goat ropin’ and I ain’t never seen anything like that.” Some...
I collect witty sayings for the treasures they are. Some are down home, like: “I been to two county fairs and a goat ropin’ and I ain’t never seen anything like that.” Some...
Treasured sayings
I collect witty sayings for the treasures they are. Some are down home, like: “I been to two county fairs and a goat ropin’ and I ain’t never seen anything like that.” Some are just a little racy, like: “That slipped off quicker than a prom dress.” Some are from my military career, like: “If you’re on time, you’re late.” My wife and I discuss that one frequently, but some things just don’t change.
Some I have taped on my desk, like” “The only constant in life is change.” Or the ones on my white board in my writing office, like: “Captured and held within the amber of time and memory.” I stole that one from a fellow writer and I just love it. Someday I’ll write a love story and use it.
Or another one from my white board: “You’re just a song nobody ever sings.” I don’t even remember where I heard that one and Google doesn’t reveal its source, but it sounds like the ultimate put down. What a sad put down…a song nobody ever sings. It might be a cacophony, but it seems to me that everyone should be sung by somebody, somewhere.
There’s another one from my military career, that a great mentor of mine, gave me. “Even the greatest career, sooner or later, ends in a non-select letter.” If you’re not a career Army person that may not make much sense, so let me explain it. In the Army when a soldier goes before a promotion selection board, you either get a “select letter” or a “non-select letter”. Meaning you were selected for promotion or not. A first time non-select promotion letter is deeply disappointing. For an officer, a second time non-select letter is career ending.
His saying simply means that every career, no matter how great, sooner or later comes to an end. The time comes when it’s time to leave the spotlight, to leave the stage, to turn over the reins.
It seems to me that it’s a wise person who picks that time for themselves, rather than receive that non-select letter. After all it’s a lot better to quit than to get fired, unless you want to draw unemployment benefits, then, at least in Illinois, you must be fired to receive them.
When my friend passed those words of wisdom on to me, he was nearing the end of what could only be described as a brilliant career, rising from an Officer Candidate School lieutenant in Viet Nam to two-star general, retiring without ever receiving that dreaded non-select letter. He didn’t overstay his welcome. Likely he was warning me, as his replacement commanding general, to not overstay my welcome.
There is after all a shelf-life on soldiers. Veterans, though, that’s a different story. There is no shelf life on veterans. The older they get the better they were.
I’ve been retired from the military for ten years this year. Once a year or so, I’ll be asked to put on my uniform to present a set of long-lost medals to an aging veteran in a nursing home or give a Memorial Day speech or deliver a eulogy at a veteran’s funeral. I do them all gladly. It’s part of the pay back for a career beyond the dreams a nineteen-year-old enlistee could have had in 1969.
After the last funeral several weeks ago, I decided I wouldn’t put that uniform on anymore. Oh, it still fits, in fact the pants are even a little loose now that I’m not eating Meals Ready to Eat and have more time for long-distance bicycle rides. It still feels good to pull that Marlowe White custom-tailored blue jacket with the two stars on either shoulder on, but the Army has moved on and I’ve moved on. A veteran now. No longer a soldier. Not gonna overstay that welcome.
© William L. Enyart, 2022
Email: bill@billenyart.com
Audio production by Tom Calhoun at www.paguytom.com