Living a Dream

Life should be all kinds of "I get to" things instead of "I have to" stuff. Some of that comes with attitude, some of it comes with our situations and how we choose to deal with those realities. Too often I allow myself to wander down the path that leads me to question what is missing from my life - when in reality, my life has an embarassment of riches, and I should spend idle time pondering my blessings, instead of bemoaning why it isn't perfect.

In about three weeks, I "get to" add another slice to the lovely dessert that is my life. I have talked about doing it for a long time, finally, fruition time has arrived. On Sunday, October 18, I will embark on a wonderful journey. My dad will be 81 in November, and is still in excellent health and of sound mind and all that good stuff. Instead of waiting for too long and then wishing that we had acted sooner, my three brothers and I will be leaving on a Civil War tour. We are going to take a week and just visit Civil War battlefields in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

The trip is all mapped out. My oldest brother, who will be celebrating his 60th birthday on the day that we depart, is a pastor, and when he completes his pastoral functions that day, we will get in his van and head for Gettysburg, PA - site of one of the most famous battlefields in all of a American history. More than 50,000 Americans were killed or wounded during the battle that took place over the first three days of July, 1863. I have been there, back in 1995, but only for a cursory tour of the place in a driving rainstorm. I vowed then to come back with my dad. I have no words for how excited I am to be taking this trip.

From Gettysburg, we travel south to Antietam, or Sharpsburg, Maryland - site of the single bloodiest day in American history. Union and Confederate forces fought at very close quarters and neither side flinched. Union Commander General George McClellan had been tipped off to General Robert E. Lee's Confederate plans when a Confederate officer had accidentally left his copy of the battle plans lying around. A short time later a Union soldier had found the prize - the plans were wrapped around three cigars. The discovery of the plans should have allowed a smashing Union victory, but the cautious McClellan moved too slowly and was only able to fight to a draw, with both armies limping away from the September, 1862 debacle, and no end to the carnage for another two and a half years.

Those two are locked in as destinations. From there we will most likely detour a bit to our nation's capital, or just across the river from it, to visit Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA. Two of my brothers have served in the armed forces, and it is a site that I just think we need to include. The elevation and lofty perch of the cemetery, which was Robert E. Lee's home until the Civil War started, is just such an awesome and lovely place, home to final resting place of two Presidents of the US, Supreme Court Justices, soldiers, astronauts, explorers - an almost "Who's Who" of American History...

After Arlington, we hope to visit other Civil War battlefields in Virginia - possibly Manassas (site of the First and Second Battles of Bull Run), Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg and Spottsylvania. I am in charge of investigating the sites, finding out hours, admission fees and all that fun stuff. I think we will have a meeting with all five of us to go over the itinerary and make sure that we are all on the same page... but the main thing is that we are going. It will be odd, very strange indeed, for the five of us to travel together and NOT have our golf clubs with us, but we all have a fascination and sincere interest in the Civil War and our nation's history... and to be able to do this together, makes me so happy, I am almost at a loss to describe how I feel.

I get to do some Civil War history research, on site, with my family. I don't know that it could get any better than that.