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Colonel H.F. Lee kept a backup cell phone as overflow for the Veteran's Lodge Suicide Prevention line … sometimes, around certain days, the main line would get heavy, but also, commissioned officers just didn't want to talk with a sergeant or warrant officer if they didn't have to, and colonels and generals absolutely were not going to talk to anyone below a major.
Captains could go either way, but not the likes of R.E. Ludlow … Colonel Lee knew the man well, and his uppity older cousin got on his last nerves.
“How are you going to be more stuck up than me, and I'm a colonel – on top of that a hillbilly, but still a Lee?” he said once to him in a heated moment. “Get over yourself, Captain, and that's an order!”
Captain Ludlow was trying, and that's why Colonel Lee always took his call.
“R.E., you sound a bit ill,” the colonel said to his cousin.
“H.F., I am,” the captain answered. “You said that God would force the issue, and He is. A Sgt. Vincent Trent has moved in with his family right next to me and the grandkids, and he's Black.”
“Oh, boo-hoo.”
“Well, don't you see that men like us can't have anything to ourselves – what was the point of doing all this to get ahead in the world if you can't actually get yourself and your family ahead of people whose ancestors would have been your ancestors' slaves?”
“Oh, boo-hoo.”
“Why don't you take me seriously?”
“I take you seriously, but not your foolishness, and if you had wanted to be reinforced in your foolishness, you've got plenty of other people you could have called, so stop it.”
Captain Ludlow sighed.
“You actually like the Trents, don't you?”
“Boy, do you know me, H.F. Yes, they are a likeable family. My grandchildren are all so excited to have such nice playmates, and Sgt. Trent is a man of great valor.”
“So, beside your foolishness, what's the problem?”
Captain Ludlow sighed again.
“I guess there isn't one, H.F.”
“Look, R.E., here is the thing. If you compete against people who you assume are weaker than you, you just make yourself weak – you're winning, but in a rigged game, so when real life hits, you're weak.
“Now you're not a weak man, but there is a reason that I am 12 years younger and yet outrank you. The only real competition I have, in this whole world, is ME. That's all I need to get ahead – because if you can, as a man in Christ, conquer the evil and weakness in yourself, you automatically will find yourself at the top of your game in life.”
Captain Ludlow sighed.
“I know this,” he said. “It would eliminate a lot of the worry I have in life, and save a lot of energy, if at some point I would start applying it … the Bible actually teaches us this … we have enough to do, walking by the Spirit and giving no occasion for our flesh to dishonor God, to not need to make up opponents.”
“But it's so much easier to blame and project on someone else – father Adam gave us that as our inheritance.”
“Yes, it is … at least on its face. But I've got to make a way into the 21st Century for these grandbabies, and I know the old way isn't going to work.”
“No, it's not, R.E. Let me make a suggestion that you recall the commands of our Commander: if you see Sgt. Trent as your neighbor, then love your neighbor. If you see Sgt. Trent as your enemy, guess what? The Commander also said, 'Love your enemies.'”
“If I wasn't a Christian, this would be a lot easier to deal with … but then again, not in the long run.”
“Not even in the short run. You and I share an Uncle R.E. Remember what he was doing at 58 years old – at Appomattox? And how old are you, again?”
“Oh, my word … I will be 58 next month!”
“I'm just saying, Cousin R.E. Uncle R.E. would tell you that God will force the issue as hard as He needs to – better surrender now.”