As a child, I was often admonished by my mother to "wait and see".
I suppose I must have asked her something and she wasn´t prepared to answer.
On reflection, this must have been one of the first lessons that all of us must
come to terms with. Patience! The very young are not normally prone to
patience and I most certainly was not. We looked forward to school holidays,
birthdays, Christmas, and going to the movies, (we called them pictures where
I grew up in Wales.) We were always looking forward to something and time
seemed to pass so slowly.
On Saturday mornings, our parents were glad to get rid of us for a few hours,
as we were sent off to the "pictures". Three hours of bliss for us and them.
Tarzan, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, Hop Along Cassidy, Gabby Hayes,
not to mention Donald Duck, Mickey, and the rest. Ah, those were the days!
After WWII there were many films about the war, and there is still today.
Most of the ones that I can remember were in black and white, which I still
prefer. I am sure we have all seen these films over the years as they have
been repeated on TV many times. Surprisingly enough, for me, one of the
most moving scenes that I recall was of a Royal Airforce wing commander,
looking anxiously through a window overlooking the runway, waiting for his
men to return after a sortie. It´s strange how some things get imprinted in our
minds, especially when we were young.
"They also serve who stand and wait". I remember how these words first
penetrated my heart and that it was so true. Not everyone went off to war.
Mothers, wives, those too old for service, and so many others. They didn´t
stand around waiting, they worked their butts off doing what they could, but
they served and served so well.
Now we are all admonished to "wait and see". Not easy, is it? But looking
back, over more than eighty years, and having to wait and see for so many
things, I have asked myself many times, "was it worth it"? and the answer is
a resounding "yes".
Lemuel
