The other night I watched a PBS special featuring a singing group called 4Troops, made up of four Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans.
While on the front lines in Iraq, Meredith Melcher’s ambulance platoon successfully evacuated hundreds of injured Americans and Iraqis to higher levels of medical treatment. She is 29.
David Clemo, 30, first provided communications support in Afghanistan; as communications chief during his second deployment, in Iraq, he laid fiber optic cable.
Daniels Jens, 36, joined the Army after the events of 9/11. In October 2007, he deployed to Iraq with the 1st Calvary Division as a crew member of the Field Artillery Cannon.
And during a 20-year military career, Ron Henry, 41, spent seven years traveling the unprotected roads of Iraq as transporter and transportation manager.
These four powerful voices have come together to support active military members, veterans and their families and honor their sacrifices in song.
Their singing was heartfelt and beautiful; learning about them reminded me of how whimsical life can be. Could these four individuals have imagined that joining the Army would bring them a singing career they may have dreamt of, a CD, a concert tour and PBS special? Yet it did.
What’s this got to do with speechwriting, you may ask. Be patient, gentle reader. Everything belongs.
What set of circumstances brought you to speechwriting? Did you always enjoy writing? Did you have a teacher that encouraged you, as many have? Was there a particular story or book that inspired you to believe you, too, could have your way with words?
Did you start out as a newspaper reporter, perhaps, as I did? When did you discover you could pull together words and ideas that resonated with others? Did you first give a speech yourself, before you wrote for anyone else?
Did you, like me, fall in love with words and phrases, poetry and prose? Did you love the way they sounded, tasted, felt on your tongue? Did you realize parallel structure was your thing? Did you get compliments on your writing and decide it felt pretty good?
Beyond that, like 4Troops, did you begin your professional life expecting to go in one direction before life took you in another? What of all the people you met along the way? People who noticed you, edited you, challenged you, promoted you?
Just like the members of 4Troops, your life as a speechwriter today is the product of the people you met, the places you went, the experiences and lucky breaks you had and the hard work you did.
Life is funny; yes, it is. But also, like the unexpected success of 4Troops, the broken road that led us to become speechwriters is the result of a loving God who takes our Jackson Pollock painting of a life and fashions it into a Thomas Eakins portrait. Or, keeping the music of 4Troops in mind, He often takes the dissonant chords of our lives and uses them to compose a symphony.
What do you think?
