Random thoughts. The only kind I have.
Well, after my previous whining and self-pity, I'm feeling a bit more Zen about our prospects for parenthood, feeling like it will happen somehow, someday and I need to not be a total spaz about it. There are millions of people with WAY worse problems than that. I have Lisa, and I have a good job, and I have my health, and I have family and friends who love me, and I havea nice place to live and enough money to pay for it. So, I just needed to remind myself that this is only a bump in the road, and not the end of the road.
And a cool thing happened to me Saturday. On the back of my car, I have a magnetic version of the Service Flag, which the Department of Defense authorizes certain immediate family members to fly in honor of a serviceman or woman either serving, or killed in service. (If you're not familiar with this, it was a much more common thing in WWII, and a blue star represents a living service member; it is replaced with gold if the servicemember is killed.) The flag on my car belongs to my niece Alexis, and it bears two blue stars, symbolizing that both her mom and dad are in service.
Anyway, as I drove to work Saturday morning, I heard a honk and turned to see a station wagon coming up behind me, then beside me, on the left. The man driving the wagon was in his 50s, with long hair and a very bushy beard. And he saluted me, a perfect, snappy salute. I smiled and nodded, a bit taken aback (having first wondered if I'd cut him off, and then wondering if he was about to flip me off--no, I'm not cynical), and unsure if it was proper or improper for me to return his salute, not being a veteran myself. I hope I didn't offend him by not offering one in return; I'm sure he understood. Anyway, I think this man was likely a Vietnam-era veteran, and those guys are truly amazing. The patriotism they show--maybe not for every president or every act of Congress, but for this IDEALS this country is built on--is truly unbelievable, when you consider the way our country treated them while they served. (My father served during Vietnam, though fortunately his unit remained stateside throughout his two-year hitch; still, he can tell stories about the insults hurled at him for wearing the uniform.) Many of those men were drafted, serving not because they chose to but because they had to. And they are the ones now who will salute you in traffic, when all you've done is be the older sister of a soldier. Even if you do have an anti-Bush sticker and a big ol' rainbow flag on the rear window of your car.
And a cool thing happened to me Saturday. On the back of my car, I have a magnetic version of the Service Flag, which the Department of Defense authorizes certain immediate family members to fly in honor of a serviceman or woman either serving, or killed in service. (If you're not familiar with this, it was a much more common thing in WWII, and a blue star represents a living service member; it is replaced with gold if the servicemember is killed.) The flag on my car belongs to my niece Alexis, and it bears two blue stars, symbolizing that both her mom and dad are in service.
Anyway, as I drove to work Saturday morning, I heard a honk and turned to see a station wagon coming up behind me, then beside me, on the left. The man driving the wagon was in his 50s, with long hair and a very bushy beard. And he saluted me, a perfect, snappy salute. I smiled and nodded, a bit taken aback (having first wondered if I'd cut him off, and then wondering if he was about to flip me off--no, I'm not cynical), and unsure if it was proper or improper for me to return his salute, not being a veteran myself. I hope I didn't offend him by not offering one in return; I'm sure he understood. Anyway, I think this man was likely a Vietnam-era veteran, and those guys are truly amazing. The patriotism they show--maybe not for every president or every act of Congress, but for this IDEALS this country is built on--is truly unbelievable, when you consider the way our country treated them while they served. (My father served during Vietnam, though fortunately his unit remained stateside throughout his two-year hitch; still, he can tell stories about the insults hurled at him for wearing the uniform.) Many of those men were drafted, serving not because they chose to but because they had to. And they are the ones now who will salute you in traffic, when all you've done is be the older sister of a soldier. Even if you do have an anti-Bush sticker and a big ol' rainbow flag on the rear window of your car.
posted by tp at 9:27 PM
1 Comments:
"all you've done is be the older sister of a soldier"
That, my friend, is the understatement of the year. What you are doing is very different than what your brother and his wife are doing, but no less important.
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