I hope you all had a nice holiday. I met an interesting man at the church where the kids and I were serving food yesterday morning. He had been in the Army and had two tours in Bagdad. He was in the security forces. He had some amazing stories and I found the entire conversation to be so fascinating that I almost forgot why I was there (until my kids came over to ask me to focus on the task at hand!).
The discussion that impressed me the most was his feeling about our country. He said that he went into the Army because he didn’t really know what to do with his life and he didn’t think college was the right avenue. On his many tours and years in the Army (20) he said he had been around the world multiple times. All this travel and all his experiences led him to one defining feeling – that he is grateful to be an American.
He talked about all the fantastic and beautiful countries he’d been to. He also told me about the opulence and horrors of some of those same countries. Even with all the beauty and money of other areas of the world, he said that he would prefer to live in the poorest of areas in American than anywhere else. He believes that many of us (I am going to include myself here) take our country for granted … the freedoms we have and the opportunities in front of us. He thought that we expect so much from our country and give back so little.
I really have no wise or funny thoughts about this conversation other than I am thankful to have had the experience. I do, however, want to share this: that on Thanksgiving, in the basement of a church, surrounded by homeless folks and my three children, I was reborn an American.
Enjoy your continued holiday weekend!
theyearof50 