This Week's Story
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Great and small risks may trump safety in a foxhole.
This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.
The Foxhole, part one
Hiding in a dumpster might keep a teen safe from a gang or a woman hidden from a stalker.. Refusing to go to social gatherings might prevent social anxiety. Hiding in an abandoned shack might keep a soldier from having to shoot at the enemy or being shot at. Avoiding looking someone into the eyes might help a shy person not feel rejected.
A foxhole is a hole or trench for a soldier to dive into for safety from enemy fire. Whether a foxhole for keeping alive or a comfort zone to avoid social discomfort, both provide escape from risk.
When escapes become a way of living, they bring loss. They build styles of living, sometimes called foxhole mentalities, living in a bubble or comfort zone.
In the United States where loneliness thrives and cell phones provide alternatives to direct contact with humans, foxholes and social bubbles are increasing. Watch people in restaurants, airports, walks, cars, homes, and churches. Could they be stuck in bubbles?
Audie Murphy was a famous highly-decorated United States World War II soldier. He was born April 27, 1925 and died at age 45. He appeared in more than 40 films and wrote several popular country music songs. That reads like success with happiness trumping pain. Not so!
Audie’s life was punctured with difficulties. He might have a brief respite in a foxhole, but he did not get foxhole mentality. His birth family in Texas were have-nots for food and clothing. Audie’s father, as Audie wrote, “simply walked out of our lives, and we never heard from him again.” He left nine children and a wife. Audie was 15. A year later his mother died.
The next year Audie tried to get into the military. He was rejected from the paratroops and Marines because he was too small. When he was accepted by the Army for the infantry, he was 5 feet and 5 inches tall. He weighed 112 pounds and was seventeen, too young to join, except that he falsified his enlistment papers.
He had pride, temper, self-reliance, tenacity, the instincts for leadership with the common man, and lightning responses on the battle field.
One day while Audie was in a battle zone in Italy, he was called for questioning about a guy in his platoon named Private Thompson. Thompson was missing in action. Private Thompson had gone into an impossible comfort zone for a soldier. He had become a deserter. He could not force himself to face enemy guns again.
Private Thompson received a prison sentence of twenty years. What alternatives did he have? Could he have been a conscientious objector? Would he have known how his terror would affect him when he was under enemy fire? Could he have been rescued? What risks could he have taken?
Next week we meet Brian Blair who was born blind and had what he calls a normal childhood. How did he avoid a foxhole mentality?
Today’s story is brought to you by Todd Warren, Abigail Warren, Abigail Slagan, and Barbara Steiner.
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