The Firefighter Who Pulled Me Off a Mountain
A firefighter pulled me off the side of a mountain when I was seventeen. Memorial Day is when I remember the people who run toward danger the rest of us run from.Share on X
This one is personal for me. When I was seventeen, my father and I went on a hike in the San Bernardino Mountains, up near Lake Arrowhead. We got trapped on the side of the mountain, stuck where we couldn’t get ourselves out. A firefighter came and pulled me off that slope. I’m here, in part, because someone whose job is running toward danger came and got me down.
So when I think about Memorial Day, I think broadly.
The day honors fallen service members first, and rightly so. But in my mind it includes the police officers and firefighters too, the people who put themselves between the rest of us and the worst day of our lives. They run toward danger the rest of us run from. I don’t separate that out.
Why the Stories Matter
The people who serve rarely tell their own stories. They think it isn’t a big deal. Then they’re gone, and the story goes with them. Write it down while you can.Share on X
The people who serve almost never tell their own stories, and that’s a loss.
They’re not built to talk about themselves. Ask a firefighter or a veteran about the day that mattered most and you’ll usually get a shrug and a few words. They think it’s not a big deal, that they were just doing the job.
Then time passes, and they’re gone, and the story goes with them. The detail, the fear, the decision made in a few seconds that saved a life, all of it disappears because nobody wrote it down.
That’s why I mark Memorial Day the way I do, and usually write something for it. The people who served, and the ones who serve now, deserve to be recognized while they can still be heard. Their stories are exactly the kind that vanish if no one captures them, and once they’re gone, they don’t come back. I’ve written about the urgency of recording these stories before the witnesses are gone, and the people who serve are at the top of that list.
How do you mark Memorial Day?
Remember the people who gave their lives. That’s the day’s first purpose, and it doesn’t need improving.
Beyond that, if you know someone who served, or a firefighter, or a police officer, ask them about it and listen. Better yet, help them get the story down. It doesn’t have to be a book. It can be a recorded conversation, a few written pages, anything that keeps the memory from disappearing. The people who run toward danger rarely think their story is worth recording. They’re wrong. Memorial Day is a good day to prove it to them, and to make sure the ones we’ve lost aren’t forgotten.