Frankie and Slim

Frankie and Slim
Happy New Year

Monday, April 28, 2008

YOU CANNOT SEE INSIDE A SOLDIER

You may have a parent, sibling, child or other relative and/or friend who has served in the military. That causes some people to claim they are experts because of this connection. It is like a person saying I understand racial discrimination because I have a black friend.

Yesterday my sister and I talked about the one-way bridge crossed over by members of the armed forces. We cannot cross that bridge with them and they can never come back from what they have experienced.

My spouse is retired military and as close as we are, I know nothing about his many years of military service. He tells me funny stories about people he served with and places he saw but he does not discuss with me what I cannot feel empathy for. That discussion only takes place with other veterans. Ron crossed a bridge when he served in the US Navy during the Cold War and Vietnam . He can only talk openly with others who have crossed that same bridge. They speak a language of mutual understanding and respect.

Last year a movie came out called Home Of The Brave. It did not receive rave reviews from Hollywood because they said it did not properly reflect the military. Well even I know enough to believe it probably represented our soldiers better than any movie ever made. It showed the inability of friends and family to recognize the difficulty our young men and women have returning to “normal” life after returning from a war zone.

“Thank you” is all you can really say to a veteran. One absolutely cannot say, “I know how you feel” unless they actually served.

(This is just one of those opinions that popped into my head and I needed to share it. Also this is a great blog to read up on military activity.)

4 comments:

  1. So true, I think. I had a cousin who was a POW in WW2 and he would never talk about what he went through, but you could tell it was horrific. In his 70's, he started to have nightmares about it.

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  2. I could not have said it better or agree with you more. This applies to many areas of our lives like loosing a spouse or a child,being violated in some way and etc.
    Thanks for the reminder:)

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  3. Hey Grannie. You know, I looked up the little bird too, and all I found out was that it's a Red-Headed Sparrow. The pictures of the liitle guys resemble the little one we found. The funny part was keeping my 22 pnd tabby away from the little guy until he flew away, LOL !! Blessings to ya :-)

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  4. Thank You never feels like it's enough, but I know that to those who have served, it means a lot.
    Thank You, Ron for your service.

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