Momma, I'm Coming Home

Dean Martin said it best, "you know the world is the same, you'll never change it." That's true for this war, or for at least now. Afghanistan was a remarkable place to have visited. One that not many other people probably ever will. It's landscape, stunning in it's harshness, was certainly reminiscent of that of Palm Springs California, but seemingly a bit more other worldly. I couldn't help but imagine that I was on a set of some sci-fi adventure.

We did some good things over here, some would say. War is an awkward topic, and one that's turned occupational at best certainly hinges on the door of forgotten and who could careless pulse of our nation. Tomorrow is September 11th, quite a day to be flying, and yet with so much suffering and so many wronged on that day 11 years ago, we all but forget why we are here. We are shocked and surprised when someone shoots up a movie theater. We've forgotten that there is threat in this world, that we are vulnerable. No matter the sacrifices that the few have made for the many in confounded places like the one I sit, it isn't appreciated to the entirety that it should be simply because we fall ill to our own prescribed sickness of ignorance.

It is a nice world, the one that I can never return to. The one that most people still live in. Seeing the harshness, the reality of life and this world is not necessarily a blessing. I will, for the rest of my days, have to carry a weapon. My bubble has burst, it has been popped. The needle, even as big as that of two planes into two towers which ultimately changed the shape of our country as any of us know it, was still not a big enough one for every one's. The thickness of unknowing is robust.

And though I danced my last dance at prom, this will be missed. The attitudes, the people, they can't compare in any realm to anyone. The depth of understanding of the man to my own left and right is unspeakable, and certainly if words could be conjured, they're not needed. The look, a nod or a stare, is one comprehended by all who have been willing to make such sacrifice for a world we will never be allowed back into.


you're nobody till somebody loves you