Chesterton’s true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him. On this day of honor and remembrance, gratitude swells for the true soldiers in my ken: father, father-in-law, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, friends.
As a girl, I never heard Chesterton’s quote, or for that matter, of the great man himself. Yet his true soldier lived in my imagination, sketched for me by the pen of a beloved author:
We are fighting to make those dear old places where we had played as children, safe for other boys and girls—fighting for the preservation and safety of all sweet, wholesome things . . . I’m going to fight for the beauty of life, Rilla-my-Rilla—that is my duty.” ~ L. M. Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside
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