Winston Churchill And The Grizzly Giant

As we all know, and eventually all will experience, life is full of dualities, contradictions, eerie coincidences, and kismets.  Perhaps it’s a function of the aging process, but the passage of time, my place in the world, my purpose, my legacy, all have become more and more prominent in my thoughts as the years go by.  

So many times in life I’ve had moments where I was conscious in the moment of the fact that I was right where I was supposed to be, while at other times in life feeling like everything was all wrong and wondering if I should have turned left instead of turning right, etc.  

It’s just part of human nature to second guess ourselves, particularly when things are not going well, because at the end of the day we are the sum of our choices, mixed with the choices of others, some made long before our existence. 

During World War One Winston Churchill took leave from his role as a member of Parliament to serve with his regiment in France as his commission in the military was still active.  

One day he got a message that a high ranking general was going to be passing by the area and wanted to meet Winston for lunch the next town over from the front lines where Winston was stationed.  

It was a dangerous request to make of anyone because it meant Winston would have to cross several miles of open terrain during which time he could be picked off by German snipers or targeted by German artillery shells.

Nevertheless, Winston and a companion set out the next day in time to make the lunch.  After several hours of trudging through muddy fields with no trees for cover, Winston arrived only to receive a message that the general was unable to make the lunch after all.  Churchill was livid.  

He had literally risked his life, trudged through mud for hours, only to have to trudge back the same way he came, for nothing.  He was still livid when he got back to his place on the line….until he saw what he missed.  

While he was away a German artillery barrage had hit his section of the line, including a shell that exploded right in his hut where he would have been if he had not tried to go to the lunch.  

He immediately was no longer angry and accepted the message from the universe that everything happens for a reason and that there must be a reason he was spared.  

Soon after, at another spot on the line, he was hanging out with his men when a German shell landed right near them but didn’t go off.  This reinforced the message in his mind that he kept getting spared for some unknown reason, but also that it was probably getting closer to the time that he needed to end his leave of absence from Parliament and remove himself from the war front.  

From then on, Winston learned to stop questioning why the universe and life was unfolding the way it was, and grousing about times when it didn’t go the way he wanted or hoped, and learned to go with the flow more.  What will be, will be.  All we can do is try our best and the universe will do the rest.  

During a recent trip out west I was able to check off a bucket list item of going to Yosemite National Park.  Before going I had always focused more on seeing El Capitan than the Giant Sequoias, but something interesting happened.  

While yes El Capitan and the valley were amazing to see, it was the Giant Sequoias that left me with an impactful life lesson and reminder.  

When we went to Mariposa Grove to see the trees I got to see a particularly large one called Grizzly Giant.  It is the size of the Statue of Liberty and has been living in the same spot for close to 2,000 years.  

To stand before such a living creature that was possibly just a sapling when half a world away Jesus Christ was alive was sobering.  To think of all of the events of humanity that have occurred in its lifespan, from the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, our founding, the Civil War, WWI, WW2 was mindboggling.  

As I stood before it admiring it for a few minutes I was struck by the thought that this tree, that is beginning to falter through lightning strikes and fires around its base over the years, will still probably outlive me.

It also reminded me that we are just passing through time and that our time is brief, so make the most of it that we can, and leave this place, and those who come after us, better off than we found it.  

And finally, as if to underscore the above, when we got home from the trip as I was checking on things around the house, it struck me how everything was exactly as we had left it 10 days before, and while that’s what one would hope for, and I was glad for, it served as a reminder that we bring the action to our lives, we are the change agents, and that the stuff we collect in life, while nice, only has meaning while we are here and doing things, and that it’s those actions that define our lives, not the stuff we leave behind.