Nymphetamine Elf's blog: "Other Stuff"

I'm not going to give you a meaningless Thank you for your service response that's become almost as generic as have a good day. I'm going to tell you something that happened to me when I was about 10. That'd be back in 1959. I think it was at my uncle's.

There was some of his army buddies there from WWII or maybe Korea. Can't remember. All I remember is like any kid I was interested nit he gory details. It was actually unusual for them to even talk about anything then. I just knew they'd all been in the army. One 'old guy' (he must have been late 30's early 40's then), told me, he didn't want to talk about that stuff but he did spend time with me talking about some funny stuff.

I kept asking if he ever shot anyone, etc., and maybe sulking a bit when finally my aunt told me to just tell the guy thank you and leave him alone. That's when he sort of grabbed me by the shoulders pretty gently and told me if I REALLY wanted to thank him and his friends I'd go have a great life, not be afraid of stuff,  not worry about bad men and just live, 'cause that's what his friends and he had fought for.

I didn't get it then and, actually, pretty much forgot about it until pieces of it flashed back over the years. It really hit me again about a year or so ago, when I say a posting on Facebook. It might have actually been you [who] posted a drawing of picnics, weddings, school holidays, sunny skies and loving families etc., over a montage of images below of trenches, redcoats, all the wars over the centuries with the idea that many have fought, died and bled to keep what we love and even more, value, safe.

So today, instead of just some generic throw away Thanks that's easily forgotten, I intend to go to work; to try to make myself and others; to look up at a sky that's not covered with enemy fighter planes and not have to worry about dodging across a grassy field because there's a sniper or someone tossing grenades. Maybe I'll even wind up bitching and moaning about some idiot who cut me off on the free way -- a road where I don't have to worry about getting an RPG thru my vehicle -- in short, I'm going to be leading a pretty safe, happy life. Maybe that's sort of the best thank you I can give anyone who's done military service of any stripe.Hope you actually have some for yourself today as well.