Hint: this was written a while ago.
Violence runs through our culture. From morning until night it is there in some way. During one summer of my life it was there even more starkly when I was at some sort of summer camp at a preppy private school and all the kids could talk about was who could beat who up. I suppose it is there today in more subtle, imperceptible ways as well.
But not today. Today we read of 2000 soldiers dead in Gulf War II. Yes, it seems they needed a sequel. Why do crappy stories always need to have sequels? My heart goes out to them. Tonight I am going to light a candle in our front window and think about those souls and wonder.
I will wonder if a number of them were like me. I mean in addition to the 99% plus amount of DNA we all share they must have had some other similarities too, right? Like maybe not being all that fond of violence and fighting unless really necessary and then, going all out?
Were they blinded by rage after some of the heinous acts people have visited upon our shores recently? Were they confused and thinking in black and white instead of this worldly grey we live in? Did they see just THEM, THE OTHERS, and go for it?
I did that in my past too. Scared myself in retrospect, but probably scared the other guy more. We were at a school dance, jumping around in the middle of the quad when some folks we didn’t know came out of no where to dance with us and enjoy themselves too. Then there was a bump and a shove and George Incredible Hulk Baker in the middle of the mosh pit. He shouted and yelled and got himself kicked out for no good reason. Just another crazy night full of new hormones.
But damn if it ain’t different I have to guess there between the two rivers in the Mesopotamian desert. Just like in a cooling relationship the lust, the passion must have started to wear off two years in, two thousand souls down.
My heart goes out to them and the small light down on Harwood road tonight is but a little symbol of the fire that burns in me for them.
Violence runs through our culture. From morning until night it is there in some way. During one summer of my life it was there even more starkly when I was at some sort of summer camp at a preppy private school and all the kids could talk about was who could beat who up. I suppose it is there today in more subtle, imperceptible ways as well.
But not today. Today we read of 2000 soldiers dead in Gulf War II. Yes, it seems they needed a sequel. Why do crappy stories always need to have sequels? My heart goes out to them. Tonight I am going to light a candle in our front window and think about those souls and wonder.
I will wonder if a number of them were like me. I mean in addition to the 99% plus amount of DNA we all share they must have had some other similarities too, right? Like maybe not being all that fond of violence and fighting unless really necessary and then, going all out?
Were they blinded by rage after some of the heinous acts people have visited upon our shores recently? Were they confused and thinking in black and white instead of this worldly grey we live in? Did they see just THEM, THE OTHERS, and go for it?
I did that in my past too. Scared myself in retrospect, but probably scared the other guy more. We were at a school dance, jumping around in the middle of the quad when some folks we didn’t know came out of no where to dance with us and enjoy themselves too. Then there was a bump and a shove and George Incredible Hulk Baker in the middle of the mosh pit. He shouted and yelled and got himself kicked out for no good reason. Just another crazy night full of new hormones.
But damn if it ain’t different I have to guess there between the two rivers in the Mesopotamian desert. Just like in a cooling relationship the lust, the passion must have started to wear off two years in, two thousand souls down.
My heart goes out to them and the small light down on Harwood road tonight is but a little symbol of the fire that burns in me for them.
