For most of my adult life, I’ve been engaged in the study of World War II. I wrote seven fictional books (two for adults and five for children) based on interviews with men and women who contributed to the war effort in various ways. It’s impossible to be a historian and not wonder, when talking to people about their experiences, how you would have reacted if you’d been in the same situation.
When thinking about my book, Dancing in Combat Boots: and Other Stories of American Women in World War II, I’ve asked myself often, if I’d lived at that time, would I have:
-Had the courage to volunteer with the Red Cross to serve on the front lines as Barbara Pathe did?
-Had the determination to join an army that would segregate me by both my race and my gender, as Judy Covington McKinnon did?
-Had the stamina to work the night shift at a war factory and “sleep with one eye open” watching my kids during the day as Clarine Riordan Johnson did?
-Had the tenacity to fly airplanes for the military despite the constant criticism, judgment, and inequity I faced, as Iris Cummings Critchell did?
-Had the confidence to take over my brother’s grocery store though I wasn’t sure I was up to the task, as Lydia Treviño de Alonzo did?
-Had the selflessness to quit a lucrative job to sketch 3,000 wounded soldiers in their hospital beds, as Dabney Shearer Didot did?
When studying people we admire, we like to say they “rose to the occasion” and we like to believe we would do the same. But I think it’s more accurate to say they rose within the occasion. They moved in the direction of their own will, their own passions, their own beliefs, even when they weren’t always sure they were doing the right thing. They moved in the direction of a call only they could hear. They would tell you they just did what they had to do, but what they had to do came from somewhere deep within.
To spend time wondering what we would have done in times of past crises is an exercise in futility, because this country needed Barbara on the front lines, but it also needed Lydia working long hours in that store. It needed Iris flying those planes, but it also needed Dabney sitting by those hospital beds. To spend time measuring ourselves against others or wishing we could be “more” is to waste time that could be spent bringing our own gifts to the table.
Today, this line I wrote in the story Las Estrellas de Oro is coming back to me: “It is true I am not where I expected to be, not even where I always want to be . . . I know I am where I need to be.”
The most that we can hope for is to know we are where we need to be. To rise within the occasion is to trust that the good we can do is already in us and will show itself in gestures and actions large and small. Some days our strength will be great, and other days it will simply get us through another day. So today, be where you need to be, however that looks for you, and ask yourself what your soul knows about the work that only you can do.
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