A short post from the road this week.
First up, “Deployment to Iraq Changed My View of God, Country, and Humankind. So Did Coming Home,” by Phil Klay.
This is not a great war story to tell at a bar. It does not have the clean trajectory of a sniper’s bullet, the satisfying moral conclusion of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, or the awe-inspiring display of force that was the Second Battle of Fallujah. It is not even really possible to know whether it was the right choice …
Second, another golden (relatively) oldie, “Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene,” by Roy Scranton.
The choice is a clear one. We can continue acting as if tomorrow will be just like yesterday, growing less and less prepared for each new disaster as it comes, and more and more desperately invested in a life we can’t sustain. Or we can learn to see each day as the death of what came before, freeing ourselves to deal with whatever problems the present offers without attachment or fear.
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Enjoy the weekend, and the 100th celebration of Veterans Day on Monday.
Colin Steele 