While we are over here, what happens over there?

One thing that has happened, is that my sister has aged an entire year in the last day, Happy Birthday Amy...........

I have received a great deal of support from my friends and my family, and from some people I have never even met. I really think that that is fantastic, and I also think it is one of the things that keep the National Guard relevant in the national political discussion.

There are thousands of soldiers who are plucked from the fabric of their daily lives, out of communities in most of our country, who serve in various capacities either here or in Iraq, or, some other theater of conflict. In our nation where your responsibility to vote is sometimes overshadowed by the pressures of life, it is good to bring home the effects of our national actions, so that people see and understand them. Many people are angry about what our country has done. Many are angry because they are frustrated by how it affects their lives, or fear for how it will affect a loved ones life. They at least are interested observers, and they vote with their heart. I don’t care how you vote, I just want you to vote, and I have a great deal of friends who don’t want you to vote unless you have the right thoughts in your head.

While we are here things happen back home, kids grow, graduate, get married, and move out. Parents and Grandparents age, get sick, some die. Friends and other relatives get various maladies, some of which are life threatening, or life altering. They all go largely unnoticed except by their circle of friends. I know that a number of things have happened while I am gone. Not all of what has happened was good. Of course not much of it would be affected by my presence or lack there of. I guess the reason that I point this out, is that while it is significant what happens here, to me, and too many of you, it is also significant to me, what happens at home while I am gone.

When we get back, there will be an entire readjustment in our daily lives again, and the fabric will have been altered by our absence. I have had a couple of people very angry because of this deployment, viewing it as abandoning my responsibilities at home, in support of a concern that is very complicated and can appear questionable in value. I have thought about that myself from time to time, and I can only conclude that people do what they do, sometimes because that is just the thing that they feel they must do. That is why I ended up here. It has come at a cost in terms of time with my family; I have yet to figure out how to split myself. It has been difficult for my wife and family, and while I don’t want to do this again, I would do it over.

That is the introspection for the day.