welk2party
09-25-2005, 09:22 AM
This is a farewell letter from a family friend that just got recalled to active duty. As you will read, he is heading to Iraq. We wish him well and thought others on here would like to see what he is feeling before hitting the ground on the other side of the world.
23 Sep 05
>>
>> Everyday, we all open at least one door and walk through it. Some of us
>> pass a mirror as we do. I always used to think that that common
>> household configuration acted as a pre-flight inspection. But now I'm
>> not so sure. On the threshold of the most considerable journey I have
>> ever ventured to embark upon, I hereby bid us all farewell. For upon my
>> return I cannot help but wonder, how well will I recognize the face the
>> mirror will hold?
>>
>> Such a statement made by someone very content with himself as I am, could
>> be construed as fear. This supposition would be accurate though
>> incomplete. I am walking forward with few conceptions about an evil of
>> which I am not familiar and that which is unknown is universally a call
>> for alarm. However, two personal attributes do much to temper this
>> reality, both of which are clothed in reason: my insatiable and often
>> ill-advised curiosity as well as my strong sense of self in terms of a
>> personally constructed and judged sense of morality which is based upon a
>> not so simple. (Look at me digress. Is it any wonder I never completed
>> school when I can't even complete a thought?)
>>
>> Anyway, what I was going to try and get at by cleverly shifting away from
>> the mirror to its frame is that I am afraid for the future, not in so
>> much as what Iraq will do to me, but what the future may hold for my
>> home. I can weather this storm of a far off land. So long as my
>> foundation stands, Iraq to me will be but a violent commercial
>> interrupting an episode of Cheers. But America is actually in the Middle
>> East for a very important reason. And gas will never be inexpensive
>> again.
>>
>> Be it next week, next month, next winter [natural gas] or next year,
>> sooner or later some very harsh truths are going to either come to public
>> attention or will continue to see expression through the manipulative
>> actions of those up on high. Either way, life is going to become quite
>> difficult. [energy] I hope I come home to an America that, if not as
>> strong as it once was, is at least as healthy and strong as it is now.
>>
>> So this is it. Within the next 24 hours I will be departing the US for
>> Kuwait to be followed shortly thereafter by some as of yet unknown
>> destination in Iraq doing not-even-god-knows what. When I get wherever
>> I'm going, I'll let you know and heave upon you some, hopefully, more
>> meaningful insights into more concrete matters.
>>
>> In the meantime, google "peak oil" and get your hands on a documentary
>> titled "The End of Suburbia" (I once sent copies to Albert Valdez and
>> Dave Williams) in order to perceive what fundamental reality I judge as
>> being the prime mover of modern events.
>>
>>
>> Bottom line. There is a war going on and it is indeed global. While I
>> do my part, I hope all of you fight and do yours. Whatever side you
>> stand on, shout it out and make me proud. Never forget that it's us,
>> America's people--down to every last obstinate, opinionated, greedy, loud
>> ****--who by virtue of our free, polyphonic expression make this country
>> great.
>>
>> Take care because care needs to be taken.
>>
>> I love and miss you all,
23 Sep 05
>>
>> Everyday, we all open at least one door and walk through it. Some of us
>> pass a mirror as we do. I always used to think that that common
>> household configuration acted as a pre-flight inspection. But now I'm
>> not so sure. On the threshold of the most considerable journey I have
>> ever ventured to embark upon, I hereby bid us all farewell. For upon my
>> return I cannot help but wonder, how well will I recognize the face the
>> mirror will hold?
>>
>> Such a statement made by someone very content with himself as I am, could
>> be construed as fear. This supposition would be accurate though
>> incomplete. I am walking forward with few conceptions about an evil of
>> which I am not familiar and that which is unknown is universally a call
>> for alarm. However, two personal attributes do much to temper this
>> reality, both of which are clothed in reason: my insatiable and often
>> ill-advised curiosity as well as my strong sense of self in terms of a
>> personally constructed and judged sense of morality which is based upon a
>> not so simple. (Look at me digress. Is it any wonder I never completed
>> school when I can't even complete a thought?)
>>
>> Anyway, what I was going to try and get at by cleverly shifting away from
>> the mirror to its frame is that I am afraid for the future, not in so
>> much as what Iraq will do to me, but what the future may hold for my
>> home. I can weather this storm of a far off land. So long as my
>> foundation stands, Iraq to me will be but a violent commercial
>> interrupting an episode of Cheers. But America is actually in the Middle
>> East for a very important reason. And gas will never be inexpensive
>> again.
>>
>> Be it next week, next month, next winter [natural gas] or next year,
>> sooner or later some very harsh truths are going to either come to public
>> attention or will continue to see expression through the manipulative
>> actions of those up on high. Either way, life is going to become quite
>> difficult. [energy] I hope I come home to an America that, if not as
>> strong as it once was, is at least as healthy and strong as it is now.
>>
>> So this is it. Within the next 24 hours I will be departing the US for
>> Kuwait to be followed shortly thereafter by some as of yet unknown
>> destination in Iraq doing not-even-god-knows what. When I get wherever
>> I'm going, I'll let you know and heave upon you some, hopefully, more
>> meaningful insights into more concrete matters.
>>
>> In the meantime, google "peak oil" and get your hands on a documentary
>> titled "The End of Suburbia" (I once sent copies to Albert Valdez and
>> Dave Williams) in order to perceive what fundamental reality I judge as
>> being the prime mover of modern events.
>>
>>
>> Bottom line. There is a war going on and it is indeed global. While I
>> do my part, I hope all of you fight and do yours. Whatever side you
>> stand on, shout it out and make me proud. Never forget that it's us,
>> America's people--down to every last obstinate, opinionated, greedy, loud
>> ****--who by virtue of our free, polyphonic expression make this country
>> great.
>>
>> Take care because care needs to be taken.
>>
>> I love and miss you all,