I read something last night that I thought was quite profound. I do not know whether it is right or not, but I do know that it did me some good to hear it. I have been thinking about it ever since. In an article written by Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal, Congressional Medal of Honor winner Bud Day told this story about when he and John McCain were in a Vietnamese prison camp together:
Today, Mr. Day, a very active 83, still vividly recalls Mr. McCain’s sermons. “He remembered the Episcopal liturgy,” Mr. Day says, “and sounded like a bona fide preacher.” One of Mr. McCain’s first sermons took as its text Luke 20:25 and Matthew 22:21, “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” Mr. McCain said he and his fellow prisoners shouldn’t ask God to free them, but to help them become the best people they could be while serving as POWs. It was Caesar who put them in prison and Caesar who would get them out. Their task was to act with honor.
It was kind of a Bridge Over the River Kwai mindset. I am sure that when one is a prisoner of war, the choice to live with honor is a difficult daily choice. It reminded me very much of Victor Frankl’s beliefs about choice and dignity that were an outgrowth of his horrific experience as a Nazi prisoner in World War II. Social slights, the tedium of day to day living, ungrateful bosses seem mighty trivial, especially when we use them as excuses to act badly. No one can take from us our freedom to choose dignity.