Reprieve
I saw him sitting in a classroom this afternoon and burst in to give him a hug. (Then apologized to my colleague.) Despite his plans, he didn’t go to Afghanistan. He was able to delay for another semester, and he wanted to see if he could get junior standing at least. And by the time the semester is over, the U.S. will be almost out of Afghanistan. Surely they won’t send him over in May for when the beginning of the pullout is still scheduled for July? Still praying. But also giving thanks: Deo gratias, Deo gratias.
Me + Richard Armitage 
Servetus, this is certainly good news. Just wrapping up my work day here. Sorry to say one of our manufacturing plants is closing and 130 full time jobs and 60 temporary ones. This hurts in a small town like ours, where there are still people who can’t find permanent, full-time employment after being laid off for months and months.
Feeling sort of melancholy at the moment, in part because I am physically tired. I heard over the weekend of a young man from an area community killed just two weeks before he was due to come home from Afghanistan. So young.
Prayer, yes, lots of it is needed.
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@servetus, Deo gratis…good news
@Angie, prayers sent…keep the faith love!
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That’s wonderful. Hopefully he’ll stay safe now.
Don’t look away from other people’s suffering. It’s so difficult. Just don’t look away.
The moment it becomes easy to look away from another’s suffering is when a piece of one’s humanity is lost.
And I love reading Ta-nehisi Coates.
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Judiang,
I love the quote. It fits exactly with what I was thinking as I prepared to leave the office. I was saying a little prayer that I would never stop hurting for other people who are in pain or have suffered loss and doing what I can to make things better.
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Gosh, I was just so happy. It made everything else about the day go away.
We do, long or short, need to pray for strength not to look away, with the news the way it is now.
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We had a youg med student over for dinner the other night, she joined the Army to help pay for med school and was telling us how she’lll more than likely be deployed to Afghanistan in a year when her schooling is complete. She is just a little sweet thing, can’t begin to imagine her in a war zone. She also told us that often times after firing breaks out the doctors work on not onlywork the Americans, but the Afgan soliders as well. I pray for peace and I pray for these young people.
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When I read this, I was truly happy. Hope he doesn’t go back and can accomplish what he wants, I really do.
OML 🙂
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Just saw this and am thrilled for the young man! Hopefully he won’t have to go to Afghanistan at all. But then, our forces could be shifted to an equally violent area. One of our cowboys who is like another son is headed out for Afghanistan in a couple of weeks in Special Forces. His mother is beside herself and I’m not much better. It’s getting to where we avoid one another because we break down if we even make eye contact.
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Indeed, it’s not like Afghanistan is the only place where a soldier can die. I’m still praying 🙂
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[…] Day. I’m thinking about the multiple men in my family who served, I’m thinking about my student from last year, I’m thinking about the men whose pictures I see on the alumni wall of remembrance every time […]
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Honor our veterans’ sacrifices by praying for peace « Me + Richard Armitage said this on November 11, 2011 at 4:11 pm |
[…] Day. I’m thinking about the multiple men in my family who served, I’m thinking about my student from last year, I’m thinking about the men whose pictures I see on the alumni wall of remembrance every time […]
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Honor our veterans’ sacrifices by praying for peace « Me + Richard Armitage said this on November 11, 2011 at 4:11 pm |
[…] Almost Every Circumstance,” but when they get to the Agincourt Carol I start wondering about my student in Afghanistan. Do I give in and write an email and tell him I am worried? Facebook also tells me about all the […]
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Frustrated Shabbat thoughts « Me + Richard Armitage said this on May 6, 2012 at 3:03 am |
[…] study this afternoon. I think of my student who went to Afghanistan once and almost twice and then didn’t go. He did get to OCS and he graduated, after which I lost track of him. Nothing against Asia, but I […]
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I don’t believe your toasts to “absent comrades” | Me + Richard Armitage said this on November 11, 2014 at 5:34 pm |