Joshua and Greta

Joshua Chamberlain was a somewhat unheralded Civil War hero. In command of the 20th Maine at Little Round Top, the hill at the southern end of the Union line on the second day of battle at Gettysburg, he was told that he must hold his ground at all costs.

Then he ran out of ammunition right as the Confederates were mounting an attack.

He ordered his men to fix bayonets: it was all he had. The thought of  a downhill bayonet charge was unheard of at that point in the hostilities, if not in all of military tactics. Yet it shocked and surprised the Rebels so completely that the assault failed. The Union line held, saving Gettysburg and arguably the entire War for the Federals.

We might look no farther than his upbringing to see why a man would do such a thing. At age 16 while working sunup til sundown on the family farm, an oxcart loaded with about 400 pounds of hay got stuck between trees. "Get it unstuck!" his father commanded him.

"How?" the incredulous teenager demanded.

"Do it, that's how!" his father barked back. The young man put his shoulder into first one wheel then the other, the spent oxen little help. Back and forth he went until, by the power of his own will, the cart was freed.

Contrast this with sixteen year old Greta. She's from Sweden. Raised without any real cares, especially the care of subsistence farming or actually saving a country let alone an entire world, egged on by adults with a political agenda rather than the personal one of raising a child, her every need attended to, brought across an ocean in relative luxury upon a boat, all to yell at adults that they'd ruined her life. Imagine; how many teenagers would have done that without prompting, let alone without guidance and encouragement. Many of us have dealt with it I'm sure. But Greta, well, she's going to save the world. She's been told so.

I don't know about you, but if had to put my hopes for the future in a young Joshua or young Greta, well, my faith is with Josh.