"Atten-hut!........................"

Veterans Day was a particularly pleasant experience for me, personally, this year, although I do confess the weather dismissing my usual visit to the cemetery. Nothing so drastic in this area other than a chilly rain; but not suitable for an old man to wander among all those hillside graves. Beth and I went out to O’Charley’s for an early lunch where my tilapia was free, indeed, the restaurant filled with those who presently serve and many like me with it all many years behind us. We don’t usually seek out such gratuity, but talking with others there, regardless of branch, ignited within me the bond created through having worn the uniform, the heartfelt love for this country, the flag and what it stands for, the Constitution, not the corruption that politics brings to it. Not all agree. Not all understand. And I would go so far as to say, as humanity tends to do with almost any issue, people, in debating war in all its horror, it seems to me, get into some pretty nasty battles right here on the home-front. That, in itself, seems a bit inane when you think about it, crying “Peace! Peace!” with a club in one’s hand, anger in your heart. At the same time, without any wish on my part to suggest judgment on a man’s soul one way or the other, it gives me pause that, almost always, it is a given for us to usher the fallen into heaven and assign the enemy to the other location, one’s ultimate sacrifice for his nation automatically assuring entrance through the Pearly Gates. Weird where we have taken Christianity. I weep. I wrestle. Souls are at stake. Peace is an inner connection known in a stumble down the path wherein I salute all those who have enlisted. There is another banner picked up along the way, though, this one blood-stained, too, its attachment to my soul an even stronger pull on my allegiance……..