Louis Roney: If

If everything is really possible in this “best of all possible worlds”— as Voltaire tells us in “Candide” — then human uncertainty should not perturb us. Like most people I know, I have striven life-long to fulfill certain beautiful dreams that snared me when I was young and innocent.

The fact that one never seems to achieve his fondest wishes doesn’t seem to hinder our vainest hopes, and we go on smiling into the perplexing future. Perhaps without any sensible reason, human history has been built on romantic dreams and our vain labors to make them come true.

Hope lives on in the human breast no matter how often hope is challenged by failure.

I can remember well the day when World War II finally came to an end. I had returned from the South Pacific and was, at that moment, teaching gunnery at the Gunnery Officers’ Ordnance School in Washington, D.C. — when a sailor burst through the door, stood beside me and shouted, “The war is over.” All present celebrated like wild monkeys and were soon out on the Washington streets sharing their joy with thousands of others.

Such was the power of one word — the right word: “over, ” that is.

The Navy had a point system to determine how its personnel would be released when the war was over, and I had more than enough points to get out at that moment. I was called into the admiral’s quarters and stood at attention. The admiral said, “Mr. Roney, at ease. You have the points to get out now, but the Navy needs you here for at least six more weeks. Will you agree to stay on for the sake of the U.S. Navy?” “Yes sir, I will,” I said, seeing my planned visit with my family disappearing. What makes us do what we do? Thinking people would probably say we do what we think is right for us to do at any given moment. That was the way I thought all during WWII and I wasn’t going to change. I would have stayed in the Navy even longer if the admiral told me my service was necessary for the public good. That is the way it was then.

Here I am 70 years later living in a country where most people seem to think, “I want to get mine now, and the hell with everyone else!” We have changed immensely, that is clear. If we could ever return to being the helpful selfless people we were in WWII is problematic. Those of us who remember the war-time of 70 years ago should be able to recall at least a vestige of what it would be like if such days returned. We continue on our slightly uneasy path into unpredictable “iffy” tomorrows.

In the U.S. we are all looking for a sure thing—and we are told from childhood on that there are no “sure things” but death and taxes. We’ll pay plenty of taxes before we put our last check to the IRS in the mailbox. We may often think how nice it would be if we had no more taxes to pay. Just wait, that time will come but you won’t be around to enjoy it.

Kipling’s poem “If—” begins: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs...”

“If” is a word that opens many possible doors and not all of them may be the ones we want to walk through. Fate may stand behind us and push us through the least welcome doors, such as hospitals, jailhouses, and mortuaries to name but a few. We ourselves must open most of the good doors to health, love, home, and marriage. Our educational and religious training helps us reach those goals. Clearly, a great part of life for each of us is “iffy,” i.e. nerve-wracking. The toughest thing that confronts us in daily life is making decisions. At the top of every corporation, every university, and every military organization are people who are where they are because they have proven that that can make decisions. Do they make mistakes? Of course they do! No human being ever bats 1,000. We are imperfect beings living in an imperfect world — a world we are trying to improve. The realistic person knows that his best efforts may fail to achieve all he wishes, but he keeps trying.

We never say, “If you don’t succeed, quit!”

Ambrose Bierce said: “Success is the one unpardonable sin against our fellows.” Ergo: If you succeed, you will be the object of jealously, even hatred. But succeed we must!

As President John Kennedy said, “Life isn’t fair” However, we can afford no “ifs” where liberty hangs in the balance.