Parenting Forward: Teach kids about courage, sacrifice, freedom: visit a veterans monument - Sentinel & Enterprise

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We mounted the steps spiraling upward inside a silo of thick granite walls. The fortress’s spire represented the ultimate sacrifice made by Americans, for Americans, so that we could be a sovereign nation. A pilgrimage with your child to Mount Greylock can instill this message of freedom. Our veterans fought and continue to fight bravely so that our children can live in a country which values life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These beautiful things, we sometimes take for granted, are not guaranteed. We must remember to stand up and fight for them. Our veterans teach us this hard-fought lesson with their courage and sacrifice. They remind us we are all Americans.

The climb to the top of the monument allows reflection and appreciation. The effort to get to the viewing deck is symbolic of a much larger sacrifice which sometimes costs life and limb. And unless you are in the service or have served, it’s difficult to wrap one’s head around just how magnificently monumental this legacy truly is.

The manmade structure sits atop Mount Greylock State Reservation by the Appalachian Trail. Bascom Lodge, a rambling rustic Arts and Crafts built in the 1930s by Civilian Conservation Corps volunteers is for “hearty souls in search of spiritual adventure and spiritual renewal with a place to rest and take shelter from the elements.”

But the real attraction is the veterans monument. The United States of America, even with all its faults, still is the best place in the world to call home for its freedoms. We must protect those freedoms. The tower crowned with a bejeweled light sends a beacon of honor for miles and miles from sunrise to sunset, and all through the night. It shines with hope for continued freedom over the treed land covering swaths of underground schist which rise from the towns of North Adams, Adams, Lanesborough, Cheshire, Williamstown and New Ashford. New England enclaves, each with their own monuments to their veterans, each representative of towns all across the nation. And like an eternal flame, you can’t help but feel solemnity and gratitude once inside the pinnacle which memorializes Veterans with the distinctions of altruistic courage and honor for their service and sacrifice.

The highest step leads to a circular loggia which serves as a colossal crow’s nest atop the massive quarried mast. A manmade structure which stands proudly at 93 feet, proclaims courage and freedom when we promise to remember those principles to our children. It’s a hallowed place whose design inspires and reflects inner fortitude. This begins with the first step skyward in a monolith built as a tribute to all our veterans who fought bravely and those who continue to defend our precious freedoms.

It’s apt that a walled climb precedes the open-air view. The effort to get to the top is worth it. Once there, pause at each of the eight massive windows and imagine the sons and daughters who fought so that a small child can hold your hand as you make the pilgrimage together. Breathe in together and notice the hamlets below, safe and snug, and see the glimmer of the cities that lay beyond those southward points. Behold The Berkshires of Massachusetts. Further west take in the Taconic Mountains of upstate New York.

Continue around and gather in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Completing the giant compass to face eastward once again, note the direction of the shining sea of the Atlantic. Explain to your children how we get to travel to these rising hinterlands spilling into the gentle headlands. How we are free across this nation.

Children will only understand the sacrifices of our veterans when we tell them. They will only know that freedom isn’t free when we tell them.

The light from the globe, like a lighthouse, radiates seventy miles from above Mount Greylock’s 3,491 foot summit.

Looking out from that high point, I thought of bike rides with our kids across our hometown. One stop — the Bunker Hill Memorial with its curved stone bench. Part of its inscription reads, “To the men of Pepperell who fought … They took part in action with British Regulars which proved the fighting qualities of the provincial militia and foretold that England could not hold Her American colonies by force.”

Visit the monuments, honor our veterans and teach our children to thank them for their courage and sacrifice which keeps us free.

Bonnie J. Toomey’s stories, essays and poems have been featured in Baystateparent Magazine, New Hampshire Parents Magazine, Baystateparent Echo, Penwood Review and Solace in a Book. She worked as an adjunct at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire where she earned a master’s in literacy. She writes about life in the 21st century and lives in New Hampshire with her husband. Learn more at www.thedeepbeautybook.com/writers-2/bonnie-j-toomey.

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