Hawkeye tries his best  to get his friend, B.J. to say "goodbye" to him.  B.J., the consummate hardhead, refuses to even enter into the conversation.  It seems apparent that he is in denial.  He does not want to distance himself from his best friend (who he met by chance when Hawkeye's last best friend, Trapper, left Korea without him being able to say "goodbye." )  Hawkey and B.J. meet at the airbase and their friendship begins like so many on the show and in reality, over drinks.  And finally, they have come to the end of the war.  It's the moment they have prayed for, cried for and pled for for years.  And when that moment comes, it is the most heart wrenching event imaginable for all the characters (and the fans).  Hawkeye will return to his father in Crab Apple Cove, Maine, B.J. to his wife and daughter in Sausalido, CA.  They will be divided by all the real estate in the United States and, yet, B.J. refuses to say "goodbye."

In the final scene, Hawkeye, the last to leave the post, has hugged his friend who rides off on a motorcycle.  As the very familiar medivac helicopter lifts him up to a life far beyond his control, we all read the word, outlined on the ground in rocks... "GOODBYE"... and the credits roll.

I have been watching this US economy come apart with some real curiosity.  It's odd, while the church's finances have suffered (and that could, honestly effect my personal income in some very interesting ways), my family has come through unscathed, thus far, at least.  I have noticed, however, that there are people I love who's lives are not what they seem to have planned.  I am watching intelligent, capable people who once worked powerful jobs do some of the strangest things.  These folks have moved to this part of the world in order to retire and most of them have had to take at least some part time work in order to make ends meet on their dwindling retirement income as a direct result of the economic downfall.  I try not to pry into people's finances unless they ask for my help but it  seems to me that this is not what these folks had intended.  I watch it and I wonder... what comes next?

And then I learned this week in a very profound way.  Some very good friends' jobs were "downsized" by an institution from which I hold a degree (vague enough?)  These are good folks.  They are people who could be trusted to further the best intentions of the institution to which they have given years of their lives.  They are stalwarts and the image of love and grace that I think of when my mind goes to that place.  These folks are honest, loyal, and selfless and they have been forced out of their livelihood because of dishonesty, disloyalty, and greed that is far beyond their control.  Like Hawkeye in that final scene, they are being lifted from the place they found safety and rest in the midst of a chaotic world.  With no control over what happens next, all they can do is read the inscription left for them there by those they thought were their faithful friends, "GOODBYE."

The news gives us numbers. "The unemployment rate has risen to X% in Y months and that means blah, blah, blah..."  Sound familiar?  "X number of thousands of jobs have been lost since a particular time."  Numbers are great. They show us the breadth of the problem.  Unfortunately, they cannot begin to reveal to us the depth of the problem.  For the depth, we must look into the eyes of the people we love where we will find worry, fear, and fatigue.  We find people doing things in retirement they never planned to do.  I see young folks who are capable, strong, intelligent, and worthy walking away from places to which they have been committed for years. These are not numbers.  They are people with names and lives.  They have families... children, spouses, parents who rely on their stability and their income and their well being and those family members have names we know too.

What does it all mean?  Will we know, in our generation, what the final outcome of all of this is?  Will we build into our common lives the safeguards needed to keep a greedy few from bringing down the greater whole?  Will we find, in this time, a way to turn from the material wants we all have and turn toward the spiritual needs?

Small town folks have a deep seeded understanding of something:  We are responsible for one another.  We take care of our neighbors and do what is right for everyone involved even when it gets in the way of our plans.  It's the only way we survive.  I suspect there is a valuable lesson in that for the people charged with digging us out of this hole.