The Magic Tree House

I was reading my two boys a good night story - Revolutionary War on Wednesday by Mary Pope Osborne, from the Magic Tree House Series - and I stumbled across the following passage:

"A dangerous mission lies before you all," the man shouted
above the wind. "But I want you to have courage. You must
remember the words of Thomas Paine."

The commander-in-chief held up a piece of paper. He read
to his men:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier
and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the
service of their country. But he that stands it now deserves
the love and thanks of man and woman ...."

"Wow, that's great," whispered Annie.

Listening to the powerful words, Jack felt his spirits rise, too.

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph," the
commander-in-chief read on. "What we obtain too cheap,
we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything
its value."

There, in a children's book. It struck me how much our country had changed, how much we had changed as a people, how much our values had changed, how much we take for granted. It seems that we now value that which we can obtain easily and eschew the triumph that requires a sacrifice, missing the lesson in the laboring, losing the importance of what it means to earn something. And the inspiration of the leadership of our forefathers - aaah, what I would give to have even a hint of it today.