My One Wish

In 1967, the Vietnam War raged. In the jungles of that country, at the end of a certain summer day, the sun set on a Marine Corps outpost. Members of a Marine Force Recon unit sat atop a bunker watching the beautiful sunset, verbally considering all the constant dangers, stress, combat, death  and discomfort they faced on a daily basis. They mused over it all in colorful language, teenagers most, boys by age but men by experience, serving our country in war. The topic drifted to a question that was posed: if you had one wish right now, at this moment, what would it be?

“I’d wish to be with my girlfriend right now,” answered one Marine.
Another chimed in: “Me too.”
The Marine next to him answered, “I’d love to have a hot fudge sundae right about now.” Other leathernecks grunted agreement.
“I’d wish to be back home, sitting at a drive-in movie.”
And so the wishes went, as men answered from the around the circle, until finally all had spoken their peace. One Marine noticed the Gunnery Sergeant for the company sitting a bit removed from the group, silent. The Gunny was about twice the age of all the other Marines and had seen a lot of combat. “Hey, Gunny! What’d you wish for?” called out one Marine.
Without hesitation the Gunny answered in a quiet voice, without bothering to break his gaze on the sunset: “Tomorrow.”
The entire group fell silent. For one Marine, it was a moment burned into his consciousness.
With all that faced them, the Gunny had the wisdom and presence of mind and focus to wish for what mattered most: one more day. He knew it was a wish and that he may not see it. He knew it was all he could live in: the moment, the day given. He knew that the future and far off dreams paled in comparison to the relevance and critical nature of the present time and place. He had seen for himself and knew with certainty that life was erratically short and often ended abruptly.  He knew that purpose of life was precisely what dictated and enabled an intensity of focus to capture the day at hand. He knew that decisions and mistakes of the moment had sometimes immediate and potentially permanent outcomes, either good or bad.
Psalm 90:12 says “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” If we are to number our days, our first realization will be that they are finite, that they are limited in number. Our second realization is that we cannot know exactly how many of them we will each have. Our third realization is that we can only experience and live out our days one at a time. Our fourth realization is that each day has its very own serial number of uniqueness, of significance, of impact. Today for me was day number 16,492. What was the serial number of your Today?
These four truths lead me to a further realization: that I must take the gift of each day that I am given and make the absolute most of the seconds, minutes and hours that add up to today. I must invest my vigor and energy in who and what matters most.  If you are paying attention you have reached the same conclusion.
My manager graciously shared the above story with me, of his own experience in Vietnam. He was the soldier who was branded by the Gunny’s answer. I came to understand what the Gunny meant upon hearing the story. My hope is that the meaning and moral is not lost on you.


Thanks for playing. Hope this improves your kung fu.
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