Moleskine for Memorial Day

The Scene: Projected to be a wet Memorial Day weekend

 

The Thang:    Reflection

MOLESKINE: Memorial Day

 

Faraway places.

 

Often we think of far away places with strange sounding names as exotic, fun, interesting. Sometimes there are far away places that reside in our minds. Some of the exotic, fun and interesting…sometimes not so much.  Those faraway places we’ve pushed down, pushed aside, compartmentalized to forget and don’t want to remember.  

 

Your Humble Correspondent (YHC) has some far away places that creep up at the strangest times.  My M will gently wake me at night and tell me, “it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s just a bad dream.”  Don’t feel sorry for me.  I have fantastic faraway places too!  Times such as; the Reagan Rancho del Cielo the “Ranch in the Sky”, Canberra, Australia, camping with the 2.0 and the M, the backroads of Iowa during a campaign and so many more.  However, it’s the not-so-exotic faraway places that disturbs my sleep.  The sound of a mortar, crack of a rifle report, boom of an RPG, screams and so on.  These sounds are just sounds, but the imagery that is attached is…a part of me.

 

This Memorial Day I remember those who I fought alongside, who gave the ultimate sacrifice. People I called friends, co-workers, mates. 

 

 

I saw someone wearing a t-shirt not that long ago that said Not All Injuries are Visible.  This speaks to the mental space of war, heck – of life, that we don’t see. The wounds are still there and they hurt just as deeply. 

 

Have compassion for everyone you meet,
even if they don’t want it. What seems conceit, 

bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign 

of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone.

~Miller Williams

 

It’s true, we don’t know.

I ask you to take a minute this Memorial Day and think of those far away places with strange sounding names and those who have sacrificed for the freedoms we enjoy.  Raise a toast, say a prayer, smile and just say thanks, not to those veterans who live but those who lead the path that lays before all of us.

 

Aye!