Over the holiday weekend Mrs. N, the youngun and I stopped in at the local used bookstore. As with most families, we have a summer vacation coming up, and I thought it would be a good time to buy a couple of travel books, maps, etc. We'll be off to a land we've never visited before, so...
Didn't take long to realize that - even at used book prices - the small amount of information I might glean from any of the available guides would be minimal and the purchases a waste of money. So while the better half was off looking for "The Idiot's Guide to Getting Rid of Your Spouse", I decided to find a book that Mr. Bulba recommended a long time ago - the memoirs of a high private in the Confederate Army, a common man (farmer) who served throughout the entire Civil War and fought in many of the major battles. "Company Aytch" is the title, and I had been trying to find it for quite some time.
My 9 year old accompanied me to the war history section, and we searched everywhere. Just as we were about to give up, I spotted the lone copy, a dog-eared paperback hidden by fancier hardbacks. I was delighted, and quickly flipped through the pages. As I did I noticed that a single passage had been circled by a black marker, and my son noticed it, too. He asked why, and I said that whatever the author had written meant quite a bit to the reader, or was in some way very profound (that took a bit of explanation). As we stood in line to buy it, I read the passage: "A soldier's life is not a pleasant one. It is always, at best, one of privations and hardships. The emotions of patriotism and pleasure hardly counterbalance the toil and suffering that he has to undergo in order to enjoy his patriotism and pleasure. Dying on the field of battle and glory is about the easiest duty a soldier has to undergo. It is the living. marching, fighting, shooting soldier that has the hardships of war to carry. When a brave soldier is killed he is at rest. The living soldier knows not at what moment he, too, may be called on to lay his life on the altar of his country. The dead are heroes, the living are but men compelled to do the drudgery and suffer the privations incident to the thing called "glorious war."- Sam Watkins. Profound indeed.
I mentioned before that this was a holiday weekend. Well, it was Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day, the day set aside to honor every American soldier that "lay his life on the altar of his country". I have to admit that like most Americans, I did very little to honor the memory of those heroes, and even less to thank those service people who may not have made the ultimate sacrifice, but served proudly and carry/carried a burden that I will never know for the rest of their lives. And to all of them I say I'm sorry for my thoughtlessness, my selfishness. And I would like to say thank you. Very much.
5 comments:
One of my favorite passages in "Co. Aytch" is when Watkins is attempting to get a stubborn mule to cross a stream as it was apparently an excercise that frustrated both him and the mule. At the conclusion, he says something along the lines of: "The mule was no Baptist and did not believe in immersion."
I believe that the War between the States never actually happened. All historical evidence was manufactured by a vast conspiracy designed to advance the industrial age, thereby empowering and enriching a select few.
A similiar achievement from earliest times was the gospels and epistles of the new testament. History clearly repeats itself. But wait, what is history?
I think that is what is known as a reach.
And without even the goddam courtesy of a reach-around . . .
I wish I had something profoundly positive that I could type here and that might endure for all time. However, I cannot think of such. Would you folks settle for a series of negative thoughts?
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