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They and every thing else plus a typo *

20221110_081701

Housemates.    it's only been maybe 2 weeks tops since i last cleared the Window.    I don't know where the old one went after that…saw her once up above the window?   But now it's two juveniles.   they keep separate sides but their webs mingle.   This morning i see that someone has extended out to incorporate the picture frame.   Boundries.   they will have to begin again.

Erica Heilman     Rumble Strip   pod cast     today,  in honor of Veterans Day.   Please take time to listen.                                               the story of Vaughn Hood.   rumblestripvermont.com  

it is extremely extreme.  is Beauty FULL.     and comes in keeping with so much lately….things that all my life i   chose    either not to understand at all or to adopt a very limited understanding.     I am seeing this,  over and over.  it flows in  like a river.  

and i suddenly so clearly understood Jenny's man.   He is a quiet man in general,  but in moments of  tension or stress,  he will stand,  statue still,  staring off.     He was a marine in Iraq through 2 tours of duty.   I talked to Alyssia today,  you might remember that she was recruited by the Navy right out of high school  7 plus years* (not 2)* until a medical discharge.    The conversation was not what i would have ever expected…about the numbers of military in peace time and in war.  the history of the Draft.  so much more.   so  much   more.    I am amazed at what she carries in her head.

Please listen to the podcast.   

 

 

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14 responses to “They and every thing else plus a typo *”

  1. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    I will listen this weekend…

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  2. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    You will be glad

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  3. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    namaste

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  4. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    We thank them for their service but so many, have given so much more than we could ever acknowledge or thank.
    Re Vietnam: the choices were so very hard, go and face death and worse, stay and face jail, leave the country…
    PTSD, survivors guilt, so many things about Vaughn’s words moved me but I had never heard anyone speak so deeply about the fact that some of those who died, made that choice, the choice to save their friends, their decisions and while Vaughn mourned their deaths, his deepest emotions were for his men who were maimed and had to live with that for the rest of their lives.
    What an honest, searing podcast: this young 5’8′ 118 lb barber turned killing machine turned hippie barber, who through it all, was and remains a Good Man. None of us can begin to imagine this experience.
    I hold deep sorrow for my own actions for I marched against the war. I had to drop out of college for one year because I came down with mono and got a job working at a collection agency. One of my classmates, someone that I did not know all that well, also worked there. While I did not wear a peace button, my views were known when we would take breaks and go out to lunch. Finally one day, and it must have taken her such courage, she approached me and asked if she could speak to me out of the office. She told me that her husband was in Vietnam and whenever I spoke out, my words were like a knife in her heart.I then realized the power of words to deeply hurt and I simply felt awful, flouting my liberal credentials, not stopping to consider how they might impact someone who did share them. I did apologize to her and never spoke about the draft or Vietnam with her again.
    My husband served two years active duty in the Navy during the Vietnam War, I met him when he returned to college on the GI bill and w as doing his 4 yrs reserve duty. He could have very easily gone to Vietnam for he was a corpsman, a medic, but for some reason, that to this day, he does not understand, he was kept stateside, working on Navy hospital ships. He was facing the draft but his numbers were low and he was in college when he decided that he needed to serve his country.
    Whether drafted or choosing to serve, the sacrifices made by so many can never be taken for granted.
    In the apartment above me, lives a quiet man, late 30’s,, whose name is also Vaughn. He is a veteran of Afghanistan and there are times, when I so wonder about him. He keeps to himself but when he saw that I gardened, after we moved here, always spoke to me and I shared a few veggies and herbs with him. One evening, his car would not start and he came over to ask Rich to help him. They stayed talking long after his engine was running. When Rich came in, I asked about their conversation and he got very quiet, and mind you, my husband is a quiet man to begin with! Finally he looked up and said, “we talked about serving our country” and from the look on his face, I did not ask further…

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  5. LaceLady Avatar
    LaceLady

    I am so intrigued by the window picture. Sometimes we as humans see what is right in front of us, on the inside of a window, and sometimes we do not. Sometimes what we see on the window, leads us to see what is on the other side of the window. I think this phrase ” they keep separate sides but their webs mingle” is food for my thoughts ~ thinking concentric ripples go outward when a pebble or bird drops into a pond. Community. connections. Beautiful humans.
    I watched/read the Vaughn Hood interview, the original, when it was first published. Have returned to this interview often in the intervening years. Thank you so much Grace, for posting the updated version, and link.
    It is difficult ~ more like impossible ~ for me to speak with equanimity, on Veteran’s Day or any other day, about veterans and service members; about not just the Vietnam Conflict, but other external conflicts/wars; internal USA as well ~ society or culture; the women and men who serve currently, or who have served ~ veterans. I am deeply and humbly grateful to each of them. Every. single. one.
    I appreciate, respect, and am thankful for each of you who have thoughtfully commented/replied to this journal entry.
    Blessings to all who gather here, whether you do or do not comment.

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  6. jude Avatar
    jude

    I can’t imagine.

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  7. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    correction: sentence should read: “I then realized the power of words to deeply hurt and I simply felt awful, flouting my liberal credentials, not stopping to consider how they might impact someone who did NOT share them.”

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  8. Deb G Avatar
    Deb G

    I went and listened. My dad was in the reserves during the Vietnam war, he was stationed in California and trained others that went to Vietnam. He doesn’t talk about it much, what Vaughn Hood had to say about survivor’s guilt…thinking about that. And about choices.

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    to you

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    it’s STORIES like his, like the ones you tell here
    the STORIES give Understanding…stretch Us….Open Us
    such Love in the Stories
    Thank You for these you give here

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Serve.
    Again….it’s Stories that Open us. and i am so lucky to
    have Alyssia’s…someone i know from birth. Someone of my blood. Who chose to
    Serve
    when no else in our family did. My own father
    according to story, dropped a large Tile on his knee
    in boot camp, purposely. WW2 exempting him.
    there’s so Much to know

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    it’s good to try. for me, anyway

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    it is deeply complex. but….not superficial. Where i have kept it.
    i remember listening daily to the numbers of the draft.
    my children’s father, had a number. We lived in Detroit then…weren’t married yet…weren’t interested in marrying. We did and we applied to the only Peace Corps program available at that time…only for married couples. which
    gave an exemption.
    no one we knew…as in circle of friends…went. None of us. His older brother moved to Canada. Getting out of going.
    so many were drafted. the Draft. and then all those,
    like Vaughn who enlisted. If enough enlist, there is no need for a Draft. Something to think about.
    The numbers now are dwindling. This country is changing.
    Something to think about.

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  14. CatherinE Avatar
    CatherinE

    A good man, making a sort of holiness out of an evil situation. Thanks for the link, it opened up understanding for me.

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