Le Garcon de la Campagne

WE ARE HERE FOR A REASON.

The boy from the countryside didn’t know this yet when he and his mother, a fighter for the French resistance, were stopped near their village and warned about the German soldiers who were looking for a woman and her young son. A six-year-old boy with long hair.

HIs mother turned her bike around and rode away from the Nazis. She took her son to a barber for a haircut that saved their lives and allowed her to continue fighting against the Nazi occupation. This simple act, this impulsive decision, almost certainly allowed the boy’s father to continue his work as a spy for the Allies. It was a haircut that may have helped win the war.

I only know about these events, and many others, because that boy from the countryside told me while sitting around his dining table, after all of us ate too much French cheese and meats and bread. He told me while we drank Oban and looked across his property into Germany, free people enjoying a cool summer evening because of sacrifices known and unknown.

I listened because he was part of my wife’s family, a proud Frenchman and enlightened historian. I listened because I loved his deep voice, his expressive cheeks, and his hearty laugh that shook the foundations of his home.

We are here for a reason — some of us to be the story, some of us to be the storytellers. And for some, like the boy from the countryside, to be both.

I’m sharing this now because that boy from the countryside, the one who became the man from Blies-Ébersing, died last week. So now it’s our job to make sure he and his stories aren’t forgotten. And if I might add a postscript, to call out those who would erase the past and replace it with something aberrant.

History isn’t supposed to make us feel better about what we’ve done; it’s supposed to make us better despite what we’ve done. We must keep the past alive and intact, tell the stories, bear witness, and hold ourselves and the future accountable.

We are here for a reason — not to change history, but to see that it changes us.