I Hope the Pacific is as Blue as it is in My Dreams

I know, I know. The title for today's post is not derived from any lyrics, but it seems incredibly appropriate. I actually just sat down and watched "Shawshank" from Andy's escape to the end. Such an incredible movie about the value of hope and freedom.

The conference this weekend was amazing. This was my first time to visit Pepperdine, and despite everyone constantly talking about the beauty of Malibu, they can never prepare you for the first look with your own eyes. Joey and I stayed with the Weber's at their house on campus. One of the really cool things that Pepperdine does is build housing on campus for faculty and staff so they do not have to pay the exorbitant prices for real estate in Southern California. The Weber's condo sits near the top of the canyon and has one of the most beautiful views that I have ever seen. Each morning when I looked out my bedroom window, I could see the campus stretching away from me down the canyon, and then the Pacific Ocean with the soft sunlight just beginning to illuminate the water. Catalina Island loomed 26 miles offshore, and the skyscrapers of downtown peeked up in the distance. As if all of this was not enough, Kenneth Starr lives in the condo next door. Yes, becoming a faculty member at Pepperdine one day sounds like an enticing career option.

Last night as we were coming back on the connecting flight from Houston to Abilene, I was reading The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara which I purchased in the airport on Thursday. I had heard so much about the book beforehand from a lot of people whose literary opinions I respect, so my expectations were riding pretty high, and the book has not disappointed. I am not sure if it was the combination of travel fatigue, head cold, and California letdown or the sheer beauty of Shaara's prose, but I began to quietly cry while I read the following passage:

One recourse: Can't go back. Can't stay where we are. Results: inevitable. The idea formed. "Let's fix bayonets," Chamberlain said. For a moment no one moved. "We'll have the advantage of moving downhill," he said...."Let's go." Chamberlain raised his saber and bawled at the top of his voice, "Fix bayonets!" He was thinking: We don't have two hundred men left. Not two hundred. More than that coming at us. He saw Melcher bounding away toward his company, yelling, waving. Bayonets were coming out, clinking, clattering. He heard men beginning to shout, Marine men, strange shouts, hoarse, wordless, animal. He limped to the front, to the great boulder where Tozier stood with the colors, Kilrain at his side. The Rebs were in plain view, moving, firing. Chamberlain saw clearly a tall man aiming a rifle at him. At me. Saw the smoke, the flash, but did not hear the bullet go by. Missed. Ha! He stepped out into the open, balanced on the gray rock. Tozier had lifted the colors into the clear. The Rebs were thirty yards off. Chamberlain raised his saber, let loose the shout that was the greatest sound he could make, boiling the yell up from his chest: Fix bayonets! Charge! Fix Bayonets! Charge! Fix Bayonets! Charge!

Let me explain: the man referred to in the passage is Joshua Chamberlain. Colonel Chamberlain is the commander of the 20th Regiment from Maine. At the battle of Gettysburg, the 20th has found themselves defending Little Round Top at the extreme southern end of the Union line. If they are flanked, the entire Union army will be routed, and the critical battle of the war will be lost. That is what makes Chamberlain's leadership incredible. In a time of extreme need and desperation, he realized that he had to do something that would probably lead to his death, but that could also give the men hope to continue. His charge off of Little Round Top led to a turn in the battle and eventually the war.

Sometimes in life, when everything seems bleak, and the sky is foreboding, you just have to fix bayonets and charge, even though things look dark. You never know what might happen....