The Honour

To us is given the honour

of living the human experience,

of persevering through lifelong struggle

to determine who we want to be,

who we will become.

To us is given the honour

to strive to learn, to grow,

to decipher virtue from antipode,

to care for those in deepest need

or ignore them to our peril.

To us is given the honour

of living in this moment,

of aspiring for nothing more

than family, friends, health and

gifts already possessed.

To us is given the honour

of inhabiting a custom-made,

awe-inspiring world of wonder,

full of suffering and trouble

requisite to make us souls.

To us is given the honour

of becoming the likeness of God.

(The refrain “To us is given the honour” is attributed to General Montgomery’s June 5, 1944 message to British troops on the eve of the D-Day invasion of Normany. It is inscribed — with the requisite British “u” — at the British memorial near Gold and Sword Beaches in Normandy.)