lazboy

Not to get too serious or anything but it's a new year so I thought I ought to at least pretend to think about the world at large.

WAR...



Paul Nash, The Mule Track - 1918

...is hell and we all know it but how often do we know it?

My dad gets his meds from the VA hospital. He recently told me about some guys he met there who were back from Iraq and missing a limb or organ or three. I didn't think much about it.

Then I saw Murderball and it made me think a little more.

And then while noodling over lesson plans today I ran across this poem from World War One by Siegfried Sassoon:

Does it Matter?

Does it matter?losing your legs?...
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you mind
When the others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.

Does it matter ?losing your sight?...
There's such splendid work for the blind;
And people will always be kind,
As you sit on the terrace remembering
And turning your face to the light.

Do they matter?those dreams from the pit?...
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won't say that you're mad;
For they'll know you've fought for your country
And no one will worry a bit.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

My eyes leaked for about five minutes before I remembered everything else I'd been thinking about recently. I guess that stuff piles up until it just pours out of you.

It's a new year for most of us but not for all and I have nothing to say about that except it's a damn fucking shame and it makes me sick and I wish it would stop.

Oh, and go see Murderball. You'll never bitch about a hangnail again.