Book received: Bob Dole's One Soldier's Story: A Memoir, his personal account of his youth, World War II, and the severe combat injuries that changed his life forever. It looks really good.
I've seen these kids in the hospitals and out, people who face seemingly impossible challenges, and I've seen myself in them. Whatever reassurance, hope, and inspiration I can offer them comes out of my own life experiences.It's said often that my generation is the greatest generation. That's not a title we claimed for ourselves. Truth be told, we were ordinary Americans fated to confront extraordinary tests. Every generation of young men and women who dare to face the realities of war -- fighting for freedom, defending our country, with a willingness to lay their lives on the line -- is the greatest generation.
In the end, what gets people through a physical or emotional crisis is not new technology or medication. Those things can help, of course. But it's faith that gives you the strength to endure -- faith that won't allow you to give up; faith that manifests itself in a ferocious determination to take the next step -- the one that everyone else says is impossible.
Adversity can be a harsh teacher. But its lessons often define our lives. As much as we may wish that we could go back and relive them, do things differently, make better, wiser decisions, we can't change history. War is like that. You can rewrite it, attempt to infuse it with your own personal opinions, twist or spin it to make it more palatable, but eventually the truth will come out. Those pivotal moments remain indelibly impressed in your heart and mind. For me, the defining period in my life was not running for the highest office in the land. It started years earlier, in a foreign country, where hardly anyone knew my name.
Related:
• Morning Edition (NPR) - Bob Dole Reopens a Painful Chapter
• Fresh Air (NPR) - Bob Dole: 'One Soldier's Story'
• HarperCollins Publishers