I admire you WS for staying sane even having those images of your experiences.
I admire you WS for staying sane even having those images of your experiences.
Don’t apologize I actually feel sorry that was your life. I also recently took on some private work that is making me feel really alive. I wonder if it’s because I didn’t start a career until age 34 so late to the game but had shitty jobs before that. Plus it’s part time on my terms in addition to my class.
In the night, when I cannot sleep, I wonder about it. When it is dark, dead silent and there seems to be nothing else awake. When the sky is clear and the stars infinitely numerous and the sliver of a moon promising an entirely pie....I am speechless and wondering what I might do in this great universe that makes a difference. And I remember the monarch and it’s brief life yet it is undoubtedly seen by many during its migration. I know what a joy it is to see such a delicate being floating in the currents southwest toward a meeting of others just like him. And I know that small twists or turns or chandelles must be choreographed by a greater force. I look forward to my next aerial maneuver, perhaps just a slow bank to the left or an exciting barrel roll. It’s enough to just be on the move toward home.Originally Posted by nswef
An acquaintance in my little community passed away today at the age of 69. I’ve shared dinners with him and had some small talk but never really knew the backstory to his battle with lung cancer. Well, his obituary cleared a few things up. It seems he was in the Air Force and served in Vietnam where he was exposed quite naturally to Agent Orange, the toxic defoliation chemical we liberally sprayed on large swaths of the country. This contributed to his early demise. It’s such a sad situation when a man literally sacrifices his youth and his golden years in the service of his country when that service seems in retrospect to have been futile or misguided.
He was quite the successful entrepreneur and built a reasonably admirable wealth which he now passes on. But I wish he didn’t have to go over there and was still around to enjoy his prosperity. Sometimes I think bringing back the draft might be a good thing. People wouldn’t be so quick to sit by for asymmetrical wars if the kids that were fighting it really didn’t want to be there and had other prospects. As it is, our volunteer army is largely made up of youth who have no future elsewhere.
I am am humbled by this man’s sacrifice and am glad his suffering is past.
A good friend of mine died from a rare neck cancer caused by agent orange. He died 2 years ago st 67. Sorry for your loss.
I want the freedom to make my own choices and the wisdom to let others do the same. So long as nobody gets hurt.
Thats the canvass in which everything else pretty much gets built for me. There’s lots of layers that seem to appear over time and I guess I think it’s our responsibility to strip off some paint that just don’t belong. Each time I stand back and look at the canvass there’s something I don’t quite like so I make adjustments. I’ve had some experiences with creativity to know there is a point where you step back and know....that’s it....it’s perfect. Well, when you are dealing with a life that has a continuous interaction with the universe....that comes as a feeling of balance for me. And there is the expected imbalance that immediately follows. That’s the beauty of life. Being able to make the. Corrections and continue flying in the general direction toward the goal.
That’s it. Just a little reflection on this wonderful experience we call life. It’s a constant metamorphosis.
It’s so ridiculous when people demand an accounting of another persons time. I faced this when I was a full time mom, although in the 80s it was more common than now, I think.
Work is completely over-glorified. Anybody who can live without working for someone else should be praised and envied, not questioned.
And this is coming from someone who loves her work.
I've had this discussion with you guys a few time in the past: Work=Good vs Work=Bad. I've always been in the work=good camp but now I see that the answer to the work: good or bad? question is "It depends."
Depends on how you define work. I think the old-fashioned way of work, where communities were engaged in fulfilling each others' needs is normal, necessary, and spiritually fulfilling. I think work in an industrial capitalist system can be soul-sucking for a good chunk of the people who clock in and clock out every day for decades for the benefit of Mr. Acme. People may glorify it to justify their means to getting all the stuff that they don't need.
So, I somewhat agree with you, Tammy--and I get why you might love your work. You're working with people and you see the direct benefit of your labor on the people you serves in the healthcare profession. Unfortunately these days, healthcare systems are turning even healthcare workers into people on a factory line just like Edison's.
Bees don't buzz around gathering pollen saying "Hey, I'm saving up enough pollen so I can retire at the end of the summer!" I think work can be extremely satisfying, and it's just plain necessary. There's work do be done in life, whether it's harvesting food on your own homestead or selling used cars. At its best, as Gibran said, "Work is love made visible." But it's too often too hard to feel the love in the typical American workplace.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
I believe that I am relatively sane, relatively speaking. I am watching a ten part series on the Vietnam War on Neltflix. It was written by Geoffrey C. ward and directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. I was drawn to the series perhaps by Burns’ entertaining and informative series on Baseball. The creators intentionally did not interview political “stars” or polarizing personalities, opting to compile interviews with people who fought on both sides and were in country.
It is a stark examination of our failure over many administrations to understand that Vietnamese people simply wanted their own country and to make their own choices. We failed to see how our policies actually inspired them to hate us. And well, much more than I can regurgitate here. Fear of the Communist domino effect played into it deeply. And President Kennedy’s calculation that if he pulled out of Vietnam, he would not be re-elected. As it turned out, it did t matter. Kennedy in many ways was not adept at making good foreign policy decisions. But the nuclear showdown over Cuba seemed to set the table for both Russia and the US to opt for proxy wars over mutually assured destruction.
But those who had to go there perhaps were the last generation who believed that their government would never lie to them. the things they saw, the things they did, the mere act of simply walking on combat patrol affected their lives forever. These people are truly those who deserve our admiration for whatever sanity they cling to today. I regularly golf with a few Vietnam War veterans and I had working partners also. My work experiences fail to register compared to theirs on the “battlefield” in Vietnam.
I believe in part, much of our current turmoil and our struggle with mental illness in this country stems from our willingness to participate in long grinding ground wars in foreign countries where many innocent civilians are killed. You cannot unsee things like that.
Having been married to a Vietnam vet and having some good friends that were it takes a huge toll on their lives and relationships.
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