One of the treasures of Mike’s and my adventure is the ability to sit back whenever we please and pick up a book. No guilt about what we should be doing instead of just…reading.
During our haunts of the used bookstores across America I have found a book of short stories by Henry Miller entitled Nights of Love and Laughter.
There is a paragraph that has so resonated with me that I have read it many times over. I have chosen to share it here on my blog because I believe it is important. I cannot help but think of Bernie, my neighbor in Ashburn, who was younger than I. He was living with a war injury when he died suddenly and possibly at the hands of incompetency at the VA hospital.
Henry Miller has captured in one paragraph something so compelling, so complicated, yet so simply put that all should read it…and weep. There it is! and has been, since Miller wrote it over 75 years ago.
“…the sirens scream their announcement of a truce. When peace comes it descends upon a world too exhausted to show any reaction except a dumb feeling of relief. The men at the helm who were spared the horrors of combat, now play their ignominious role in which greed and hatred rival one another for mastery. The men who bore the brunt of the struggle are too sickened and disgusted to show any desire to participate in the rearrangement of the world. All they ask is to be left alone to enjoy the luxury of the petty, workaday rhythm which once seemed so dull and barren. How different the new order would be if we could consult the veteran instead of the politician! But logic has it that we ordain innocent millions to slaughter one another, and when the sacrifice is completed, we authorize a handful of bigoted, ambitious men who have never known what it is to suffer to rearrange our lives. What chance has a lone individual to dissent when he has nothing to sanction his protest except his wounds? Who cares about wounds when the war is over? Get them out of sight, all these wounded and maimed and mutilated. Resume work! Take up life where you left off, those of you who are still strong and able! The dead will be given monuments; the mutilated will be pensioned off. Let’s get on -business as usual and no feeble sentimentality about the horrors of war.“
Bless you Bernie and thank you to all veterans, including you, Michael.
