I just started Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War.
Boyd's father died of illness when he was young, and his mother was left to scratch and scrape by desperately with five kids. But Elsie Boyd — John's mother — led her household with such strength and will. I find myself admiring her so much reading this.
The youngest Boyd daughter, Ann, contracted polio, which often consigned the person suffering from it to the wheelchair. Overriding doctors, Elsie insisted her daughter would walk. From the book —
When Elsie brought Ann home, it was clear that neither the operations nor the treatment were of much benefit. Ann wore heavy braces on each leg and could walk only with the assistance of crutches.
By now Elsie was fighting to maintain control. She forbade the use of the word "cripple" in her house. It did not matter to her that doctors said Ann would never be able to walk. She decreed that Ann would walk, that she would be as much like other children as possible.
John stood to the side and watched all this. He heard the arguments between his mother, who was adamantine in her insistence that Ann exercise daily, and Ann, who tried to avoid the uncomfortable exercises. But Elsie prevailed, as she usually did. Ann walked with braces and crutches until she was around eleven years old, and then, as Elsie Boyd had decreed, she put aside the crutches and walked with no assistance. She limped, but it was not obvious that it was from polio.
How many such quiet heroes have their been throughout history, their stories unknown and untold? Today's media culture likes to turn the spotlight on the mix of inanity of celebrity nonsense and whatever the catastrophe du jour is.
But you can't read about someone like Elsie Boyd and not think — these are the people who built America. Is it so surprising her son went on to do great things?
These bonds and ties of blood and culture, of excellence and perfection — no crying! Walk! It is born from love, but the tough love that insists on character and ascent. Empathy, not sympathy. Harmony ideally, discord if necessary, striving for perfection always.
It need not be familial. As we move through the world, our words and deeds ripple outwards. As the strange experiment that is the American Republic goes onwards, it is fueled by people of character and courage. The final ledger is not closed on what John Boyd's contributions are and will be; they still ripple through both the armed forces and American society.
Whither comes brilliant courage from?
Elsie Boyd.
Perhaps our actions matter than we could possibly know.