Look more deeply

Children, there was a time when there were only three channels on the TV, so you didn't have 118 options on what to watch. Consequently, yes, there were times that I gave in and watched "Gilligan's Island," but I promise you, I never laughed.

I did, however, state a clear preference for Dawn Wells as Maryann Summers, over the over-the-top Tina Louise in the role of Ginger Grant. She seemed more wholesome. And don't forget Natalie Schafer as Eunice "Lovey" Wentworth Howell III. Many years later, it was revealed that she was with the great writer Robert Benchley at the time of his untimely death. 

Oh the questions I would have had for her!

But I saw this picture on Instagram and it reminded me of someone else. Yes, Russell Johnson ("The Professor") served with distinction in World War II. He was commissioned a second lieutenant after cadet training with the Army Air Forces, right out of high school, and flew 44 combat missions in the Pacific as a bombardier in B-25 twin-engine bombers. One of those planes. with Johnson as navigator, was shot down by Japanese forces in the Philippine Islands on March 4, 1945. Johnson's B-25 crashed in the sea off Zamboanga. His co-pilot was killed; both of Johnson's ankles were broken, and he was awarded the Purple Heart for his valor, along with the Air Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three campaign stars, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with one campaign star, and the World War II Victory Medal.

After his discharged, Johnson went on to study acting with college benefits under the G. I. Bill.

The "someone else" I mentioned was a friend of my father at work. The other men considered him diffident and not driven to achieve promotion. He seemed to be happy just doing a simple overseer's job; did not seek to become a supervisor. I was around him a few times at various functions and found he didn't have much to say to anyone. Some people knocked him for "lacking ambition," but he seemed fine with his lot in life, so why push it?

Not until he died did I learn that he was wounded and decorated for valor in the Battle Of The Bulge, and not until I read a great biography of J. D. Salinger did I come to understand the horrors of that battle. It was not only a fierce armed fight, but the weather conditions were abysmal. The soldiers who fought in that battle all deserved commendations, if you read about the horror of it all, and many men were scarred emotionally for years after it. Most people familiar with Salinger and his writing assume that the character of Seymour Glass in his short stories gives us a view into how the war damaged the writer's soul. 

Seymour committed suicide after what he went through. "See More Glass" - get it?

So if Dad's friend was happy sitting alone with his thoughts, never being the life of any party, God Bless Him for simply being at the party at all. 

Russell Johnson and my parents' friend are just two people whose depth was unknown to most around them. 

Let's all look around at the people around us and see the greater picture. Love can bring it out!