A rainy stormy windy day outside. I am sitting feeling maudlin. Remembering
other days I felt the same way. Remembering a young Corpsman far from home
and feeling sad and lonely. Knowing so many who make this country safe as
lonely as I. Feeling we owe them so much. For me that day I had been for the
first time in my life far from home. In a Quonset hut Hospital in Osan, Korea.
My younger sister was born when I was seventeen. Some would say, "You don't
look old enough to have a child." I was old enough to nightly wait for emergencies
and feel so alone and helpless. I missed my baby sister. Sadly I would barely
see her for the next four years. When I did she did not know me. The closeness
was gone.
Grandpa died when I was overseas. I heard about it in a letter months
after the fact. He was the most important male influence in my life. When you think
of military men and women serving their country you do not think of these things.
I do because I lived it. We owe them so much. A maudlin day for them can be dodging
bullets, surviving and rain is inside not outside and some getting letters much
sadder than my own. A wife divorcing, Moms or Dads dying and they serving in harms
way. Just another Maudlin day in Paradise. Who am I to complain. Take a moment to
pray for those who defend this country. Especially when there are terriost out there
who--didn't want to make this political, give peace a chance.