Apologies for going off topic - the ants apparently are deciding to come in from the relatively cold weather. I spotted a few & went to town… it was only a few, & only a little section of a desktop next to the garage door where things are “dropped off” —- haha — well, as I cleaned & cleared out & threw things out & made a pile for donations - well, there’s also a drawer & small cabinet underneath - I honestly thought of Cynthia!! I think we would get along fine —- (except I would expect my kids to do their own laundry - just say’n 😘) I’m so pleased with how that area looks now 🥳 clean as a 😙
Two HumbleBundle packages some folks here might appreciate.
1. For sci-fi fans, up to 25 books for 25 bucks of “modern sci-fi classic” ebooks from Harper Collins, featuring authors Joseph Fink, Hugh Howie, Charles Soule, and Neal Stephenson:
You should get an email telling you your ebooks are ready and providing a link to download them from.
Looks like they’re offered in the Kobo Reader format—presumably similar to Kindle, but proprietary—which has reader apps on all the operating system platforms if you don’t happen to have a physical Kobo Reader device.
Thank you. Although nobody has mentioned it, I especially liked the part about 1958, when Japanese people became citizens on the deck of the USS Missouri.
What’s more: I can remember an older generation when I was a kid in the ‘70s that were not at all happy with Japanese cars on the American market because of long-standing WWII resentment. Racist views during that war were endorsed by the U.S. government (and by enemy governments, too, of course).
That so many Japanese were welcomed into America so publicly as to occasion a mass citizenship ceremony in 1958 came as a surprise to me. That was a self-confident America that did such things. Not a country that was worried about being overrun, or fearing the American identity, culture, or tradition were sub-par in some way, requiring or inviting displacement, as if so vile and unforgivable.
That may be a heavy dose of gauzy nostalgia speaking, but it seems to me there’s some basis for it.
well, not too many yrs ago, before Covid, because I was volunteering w/Alzheimer's (which shut down w/ Covid & I left to volunteer w/ the agency I'm now w/) a co-volunteer, about my age, was telling me her son would be stationed in Hawaii & she was dreading it; I asked why; she said "she was afraid he'd fall in love w/ a 'native & they'd have some of those slanty-eyed kids'. So I got my phone to show her some of my grandkids (not all of them had been born yet, of the now 3 of my son & his Chinese wife in CA) & I said "Look at my beautiful grandchildren". I don't imagine she could tell one slanty-eyed from another... just say'n...
My husband's father served in the Navy after the demand for Liberty ships declined. My mother's father, an electrical engineer and West Point graduate, served in eastern NC during the war and in Japan during the occupation. I have two uncles (one by marriage) who served in Vietnam. I remember drawing signs for a welcome home party for my aunt's husband but also that it was a tense affair, perhaps due to my uncle's particular experiences.
My father's father was "4F on account of his ear" like George Bailey, but was also older. He served in Civil Defense through his position with the gas company.
He had an uncle that served in France during WWI. Among his belongings was a box of photos of airplanes, including crashed ones. There was also a book of poetry written by servicemen and published by the AEF, titled Yanks. I think Flanders Fields was in that book.
One last veteran I want to remember: My 4th grade teacher, Mr. Lerman, a Navy veteran. For a school program he taught us a bunch of patriotic songs, including "Over There." Thanks to him I can recite the Preamble to the Constitution. He also introduced us to the Shaggy Dog Story genre through his telling of "The Gloop Maker."
This was in 1972, just outside the Beltway and right after the terrorist attack on the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics; I remember a sign in front of a synagogue that read "Free Soviet Jewry". Mr Lerman was Jewish. The ideals of the United States were precious to him. He was a teacher it took me a long time to come to appreciate (Possibly because we clashed frequently. Could be that he found me exasperating. No idea why...). I am sorry for that.
I have been long-winded the past week or so. Thank you all for your patience.
The blood draws took only a couple of minutes after we checked in, but I had to chivvy them about the vaccine. Then it was, "Which one is he getting again?"
Anyway, all done. I took them to Panera because Vlad and Teengirl hadn't eaten before the blood samples. It was just okay.
One big thing came out of my amateur study of Verdun, Passchendaele, The Somme, was the utter incompetence of Great Britain's military leaders, most of whom got their commission due to family connection to the aristocracy. They continually sent their own boys into the meat grinder just to show that the Tommies had grit....as they were mown down by modern weaponry.
That any of them were valorized as leaders is an obscenity.
I remember WW I veterans: my father knew many of them, and drank many a beer with them at the American legion. He laughed because Muncie's American legion had a 75 year lease, and the thinking was that there wouldn't be a need for an American Legion 75 years after 'the war to end all wars'.
My father would turn 99 in 2026 had he lived. In May 1945, on his 18th birthday he enlisted in the USN May of 1945, and saw service at the end of the war. He also served in Korea.
His high school still awarded him his diploma even though he technically dropped out of school, Grandma picked up his diploma for him at commencement. Many mothers did.
Assuming the absolute youngest could enlist in WWII would be aged 16, that means the youngest WW II veterans would be 96 years old, turning 97 this year.
Mom's brother (born in 1893), who was trained as a pharmacist, served in France in the medical corps at the end of the WW I.
My wife's father and grandfather also served in that war -- in the Imperial German Army. Her uncle served in the German army in WW II. Two of my uncles served in in WW II, one in the Pacific, the other in Italy and Greece.
4 Accenture 742,000 - Provides consulting on how to get things made in China to sell to others in the US (and world)
5 FedEx Corporation 547,000 - Ships things made by others (in China) to the US folks working at the above and below
6 United Parcel Service 536,000 - Also ships things made by others --
7 Home Depot 465,000 - Sells things made by others who Do It Themselves
US Veterans Administration - 434,000 So placing them here -- Healthcare services for 6 million veterans
8 Concentrix Corporation 440,000 - provides Call Centers, IT and other admin services for those who sell things made by others, (in china) and shippers who ship things made by others in China
9 UnitedHealth Group 440,000 - a superflous uncessary overhead add on to Original Medicare because OM is forbidden to have a. Rx plan, and b. No Cap ... wierd right !
10 Target Corporation 415,000 - Sells things made by others in (China)
11 Kroger 414,000 - Ah - food !!! Made by many in the US and Mexico ! And CA grain
12 Marriott International 411,000 - Hotels for executives of of companies that sell and ship things made by others (in China)
13 Ernst & Young 395,442 - Provides tax avoidance strategy for investors in companies that sell and ship things made by others
14 Berkshire Hathaway 383,000 - the Warren Buffet conglomerate - US making things, sellng things and shipping things by rail - Also Dairy Queen !!!!
15 Starbucks 381,000 - Making liquid refreshements from things grown by others (not China !)
There are things no one talks about when discussing why we don't build stuff in America.
As a small business owner...actually, a teeny weensy business owner... I could've given someone...actually, several someones... a good paying job, but I simply couldn't afford the payroll related expenses of providing all that stuff The Smart People™ insist we provide for our workers without pricing myself out of the market...not to mention the paperwork and regulations related to all that stuff....which makes me an evil capitalist oppressor exploiting The People. No one understands business. Folks understand idle rhetoricians blabbering about stuff they have no stake in or true understanding of.
Substack is full of those folks. Overloaded. Everyone is a writer with an answer to questions very few understand.
No one wants to get their hands dirty. Which, as any individual who has ever worked the trades knows...is a hard line class differentiator. Everyone talks about the working man/woman, but no one...few anyway... wants to be one. It's admitting one isn't of the upper class.
I have said so many times I think the best lesson for everyone in this great country of ours would be to be a business owner—-have employees , have a payroll, pay the taxes etc etc…!!!
Hah! I never thought about it this way, but it's true. And, it's not just about dirt. it's about class distinctions. If one is on the dirt side of the fence...me, for instance...the little unspoken delineators are hilariously obvious. It bothers some folks. Not me. My working career consisted of never having to suck up to some a-hole and always having the last word. I'll proudly take that, thank you.
What about all the small companies in the US using the higher quality tools made in China to build and service shelter and transportation for the US? Small numbers multiplied by humongous numbers make pretty decent size numbers.
Although one of my concerns about life in the US is the number of people who are in business for themselves with no employees. I sympathize with wanting to shed the headache of being managing and being responsible for other people. But I think "businessing alone" is eroding the ability to appreciate all the work that goes into compromising for a common good.
"Businessing alone" is where it's at. Our government...and people that have never had the hammer of popular opinion about things they don't understand on their throats... made it that way.
WI is the only state in the union where Veteran’s Day is not a state holiday. From a recent news article, “In Governor Tony Evers’ state budget proposal, he moved to make Veterans Day and Juneteenth state holidays. However, Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee removed that provision.” No reason given why republicans keep voting it down. Maybe they think state employees don’t need another day off. The private sector is out there working on Veterans Day.
I don't know why, but in high school I took great interest in the Battle of Verdun, which led to studying The Somme, Passchendaele, and others. What was suffered for the eventual outcome of a few inches of dirt being traded back and forth is almost beyond belief.
Matt Yglesias has an interesting open access piece on the impact of rearranging the parties fighting for those few inches of dirt, predicated on Italy joining the Central Powers.
Good morning. 23 degrees here with highs in the 30s. Supposed to warm up later in the week.
The mothership is reporting on the housing crisis, while the FP headlines “Inside Trump’s Crypto Cash Machine”.
Shout out to all my fellow veterans in CSLF. Thank you for your service!
Besides myself (Army) my family includes my late father (WWII Army) and my brother-in-law and his son (Army). In my wife’s family, vets included my late father-in-law (Navy) a brother-in-law (Air Force), a retired Marine officer and veteran of Desert Storm, and his daughter, a serving Navy officer.
For myself, my service was peacetime, and I got far more from my service than I gave. Many others, the combat vets, gave more. Some gave all.
29 degrees here, and a couple inches of snow on the ground. Sigrid's grandchildren are here (no school) and last night they went out and made a mess of the pristine snow in the front yard with snow angels, etc.
It's cold here, too. I'm taking Vlad, Epic, and Teengirl to our medical practice this morning for a vaccine (Epic) and blood samples (Vlad and Teengirl).
when I was in college, during Vietnam, there were some guys who would absolutely NOT talk about what they experienced. If talk of the war came up, they'd leave the room...
A lot of those who served came home permanently damaged. In retrospect, I think it's at the heart of a lot of my generation's issues with their fathers.
I think it’s in “The Power of Bad” by Baumeister/Tierney, but the counterpart to PTSD that gets little press is “post-traumatic growth” syndrome (or is it a syndrome? Hmm…). It is far more common in humans to experience tough, potentially traumatic events and walk away processing these in our own minds in ways by which we learn that we *can* in fact handle the challenges, and that we gain inner strength knowing that we have, in fact, managed to do so.
It may be in Junger’s book “Tribe” where this is also discussed, as well as the tendency of combat veterans *not* to talk about their experiences. My understanding is that such veterans are most likely to open up when among their fellow veterans who shared those battlefield experiences, remembering their fallen and since-deceased fellows.
I’m guessing the reasons for not wanting to talk about it are as wide-ranging and diverse as are the individuals who experienced them firsthand.
I recall reading the idea that anyone who experiences trauma can have "post-traumatic stress," but it's only a disorder or syndrome if it's causing the person significant problems in functioning.
My husband (was not my husband at the time), while not officially in the war, he was in the army, 'loaned' out to special forces. He was in Cambodia for awhile, very close to an area where the vegetation was killed off - yep, by agent orange, at that time, not known by any of those stationed there. When he was in his 30's he began having severe seizures & discovered a non-malignant brain tumor, which was removed. That itself was risky, but he said he had no choice because the seizures were controlling his life & he had custody of his daughter. No one would give any direct connection to agent orange & for years there was cover-up for many of the proven medical results from it... anyway, his big scar & indentation on top of his head has meant he's been bald since then & shaves that area around the ears & back to look less like a clown.
He has always said a good friend of mine who served in Vietman as a Medic is the bravest person he knows.
Apologies for going off topic - the ants apparently are deciding to come in from the relatively cold weather. I spotted a few & went to town… it was only a few, & only a little section of a desktop next to the garage door where things are “dropped off” —- haha — well, as I cleaned & cleared out & threw things out & made a pile for donations - well, there’s also a drawer & small cabinet underneath - I honestly thought of Cynthia!! I think we would get along fine —- (except I would expect my kids to do their own laundry - just say’n 😘) I’m so pleased with how that area looks now 🥳 clean as a 😙
We are liberated from topics here.
I hope your ants are firmly discouraged.
Not to be confused or associated with topics to be liberated...
Some topics should be avoided, but all topics need to be kept firmly in their place, which is behind badinage and frivolity.
Firmly….🫡
Or even, with extreme prejudice.
哈哈哈 😂
Two HumbleBundle packages some folks here might appreciate.
1. For sci-fi fans, up to 25 books for 25 bucks of “modern sci-fi classic” ebooks from Harper Collins, featuring authors Joseph Fink, Hugh Howie, Charles Soule, and Neal Stephenson:
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/modern-scifi-classics-charles-soule-joseph-fink-hugh-howey-and-neal-stephenson-harpercollins-books
2. For tabletop gaming fans, a set of up to seven physical, boxed games from publisher Renegade Studios for a $60 donation (or three for $25):
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/board-game-all-stars-renegade-game-studios
Tried purchasing the sci-fi via phone ??? Will have to double check tomorrow- looks good - thanks!!
You should get an email telling you your ebooks are ready and providing a link to download them from.
Looks like they’re offered in the Kobo Reader format—presumably similar to Kindle, but proprietary—which has reader apps on all the operating system platforms if you don’t happen to have a physical Kobo Reader device.
Nice one, Cynthia!
Thank you. Although nobody has mentioned it, I especially liked the part about 1958, when Japanese people became citizens on the deck of the USS Missouri.
I learned last night that the Missouri is docked at Pearl Harbour.
I didn't know that.
What’s more: I can remember an older generation when I was a kid in the ‘70s that were not at all happy with Japanese cars on the American market because of long-standing WWII resentment. Racist views during that war were endorsed by the U.S. government (and by enemy governments, too, of course).
That so many Japanese were welcomed into America so publicly as to occasion a mass citizenship ceremony in 1958 came as a surprise to me. That was a self-confident America that did such things. Not a country that was worried about being overrun, or fearing the American identity, culture, or tradition were sub-par in some way, requiring or inviting displacement, as if so vile and unforgivable.
That may be a heavy dose of gauzy nostalgia speaking, but it seems to me there’s some basis for it.
well, not too many yrs ago, before Covid, because I was volunteering w/Alzheimer's (which shut down w/ Covid & I left to volunteer w/ the agency I'm now w/) a co-volunteer, about my age, was telling me her son would be stationed in Hawaii & she was dreading it; I asked why; she said "she was afraid he'd fall in love w/ a 'native & they'd have some of those slanty-eyed kids'. So I got my phone to show her some of my grandkids (not all of them had been born yet, of the now 3 of my son & his Chinese wife in CA) & I said "Look at my beautiful grandchildren". I don't imagine she could tell one slanty-eyed from another... just say'n...
My aunt, born in 1931, used racial slurs toward Japanese people all her life.
My husband's father served in the Navy after the demand for Liberty ships declined. My mother's father, an electrical engineer and West Point graduate, served in eastern NC during the war and in Japan during the occupation. I have two uncles (one by marriage) who served in Vietnam. I remember drawing signs for a welcome home party for my aunt's husband but also that it was a tense affair, perhaps due to my uncle's particular experiences.
My father's father was "4F on account of his ear" like George Bailey, but was also older. He served in Civil Defense through his position with the gas company.
He had an uncle that served in France during WWI. Among his belongings was a box of photos of airplanes, including crashed ones. There was also a book of poetry written by servicemen and published by the AEF, titled Yanks. I think Flanders Fields was in that book.
One last veteran I want to remember: My 4th grade teacher, Mr. Lerman, a Navy veteran. For a school program he taught us a bunch of patriotic songs, including "Over There." Thanks to him I can recite the Preamble to the Constitution. He also introduced us to the Shaggy Dog Story genre through his telling of "The Gloop Maker."
This was in 1972, just outside the Beltway and right after the terrorist attack on the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics; I remember a sign in front of a synagogue that read "Free Soviet Jewry". Mr Lerman was Jewish. The ideals of the United States were precious to him. He was a teacher it took me a long time to come to appreciate (Possibly because we clashed frequently. Could be that he found me exasperating. No idea why...). I am sorry for that.
I have been long-winded the past week or so. Thank you all for your patience.
Listening to one another, at length, is part of our unstated mission statement.
It is, isn't it? I hadn't thought about it quite like that. I know I get a lot from reading the experiences of others.
Thanks.
The blood draws took only a couple of minutes after we checked in, but I had to chivvy them about the vaccine. Then it was, "Which one is he getting again?"
Anyway, all done. I took them to Panera because Vlad and Teengirl hadn't eaten before the blood samples. It was just okay.
One big thing came out of my amateur study of Verdun, Passchendaele, The Somme, was the utter incompetence of Great Britain's military leaders, most of whom got their commission due to family connection to the aristocracy. They continually sent their own boys into the meat grinder just to show that the Tommies had grit....as they were mown down by modern weaponry.
That any of them were valorized as leaders is an obscenity.
I remember WW I veterans: my father knew many of them, and drank many a beer with them at the American legion. He laughed because Muncie's American legion had a 75 year lease, and the thinking was that there wouldn't be a need for an American Legion 75 years after 'the war to end all wars'.
My father would turn 99 in 2026 had he lived. In May 1945, on his 18th birthday he enlisted in the USN May of 1945, and saw service at the end of the war. He also served in Korea.
His high school still awarded him his diploma even though he technically dropped out of school, Grandma picked up his diploma for him at commencement. Many mothers did.
Assuming the absolute youngest could enlist in WWII would be aged 16, that means the youngest WW II veterans would be 96 years old, turning 97 this year.
Good story.
Mom's brother (born in 1893), who was trained as a pharmacist, served in France in the medical corps at the end of the WW I.
My wife's father and grandfather also served in that war -- in the Imperial German Army. Her uncle served in the German army in WW II. Two of my uncles served in in WW II, one in the Pacific, the other in Italy and Greece.
American Employment at Work
1. Walmart 2,100,000 - Selling things made by others (In China)
2 Amazon.com 1,525,000 - Selling things made by others (in China)
3 Allied Universal 800,000 - Provides security, janitorial services
4 Accenture 742,000 - Provides consulting on how to get things made in China to sell to others in the US (and world)
5 FedEx Corporation 547,000 - Ships things made by others (in China) to the US folks working at the above and below
6 United Parcel Service 536,000 - Also ships things made by others --
7 Home Depot 465,000 - Sells things made by others who Do It Themselves
US Veterans Administration - 434,000 So placing them here -- Healthcare services for 6 million veterans
8 Concentrix Corporation 440,000 - provides Call Centers, IT and other admin services for those who sell things made by others, (in china) and shippers who ship things made by others in China
9 UnitedHealth Group 440,000 - a superflous uncessary overhead add on to Original Medicare because OM is forbidden to have a. Rx plan, and b. No Cap ... wierd right !
10 Target Corporation 415,000 - Sells things made by others in (China)
11 Kroger 414,000 - Ah - food !!! Made by many in the US and Mexico ! And CA grain
12 Marriott International 411,000 - Hotels for executives of of companies that sell and ship things made by others (in China)
13 Ernst & Young 395,442 - Provides tax avoidance strategy for investors in companies that sell and ship things made by others
14 Berkshire Hathaway 383,000 - the Warren Buffet conglomerate - US making things, sellng things and shipping things by rail - Also Dairy Queen !!!!
15 Starbucks 381,000 - Making liquid refreshements from things grown by others (not China !)
There are things no one talks about when discussing why we don't build stuff in America.
As a small business owner...actually, a teeny weensy business owner... I could've given someone...actually, several someones... a good paying job, but I simply couldn't afford the payroll related expenses of providing all that stuff The Smart People™ insist we provide for our workers without pricing myself out of the market...not to mention the paperwork and regulations related to all that stuff....which makes me an evil capitalist oppressor exploiting The People. No one understands business. Folks understand idle rhetoricians blabbering about stuff they have no stake in or true understanding of.
Substack is full of those folks. Overloaded. Everyone is a writer with an answer to questions very few understand.
No one wants to get their hands dirty. Which, as any individual who has ever worked the trades knows...is a hard line class differentiator. Everyone talks about the working man/woman, but no one...few anyway... wants to be one. It's admitting one isn't of the upper class.
Preach it!!
I have said so many times I think the best lesson for everyone in this great country of ours would be to be a business owner—-have employees , have a payroll, pay the taxes etc etc…!!!
The only jobs where it is socially and intellectually acceptable to get one's hands dirty are in the OR or the ER.
I really hope they wash their hands before they operate on me!
Hah! I never thought about it this way, but it's true. And, it's not just about dirt. it's about class distinctions. If one is on the dirt side of the fence...me, for instance...the little unspoken delineators are hilariously obvious. It bothers some folks. Not me. My working career consisted of never having to suck up to some a-hole and always having the last word. I'll proudly take that, thank you.
yup
What about all the small companies in the US using the higher quality tools made in China to build and service shelter and transportation for the US? Small numbers multiplied by humongous numbers make pretty decent size numbers.
Although one of my concerns about life in the US is the number of people who are in business for themselves with no employees. I sympathize with wanting to shed the headache of being managing and being responsible for other people. But I think "businessing alone" is eroding the ability to appreciate all the work that goes into compromising for a common good.
"Businessing alone" is where it's at. Our government...and people that have never had the hammer of popular opinion about things they don't understand on their throats... made it that way.
Absolutely agree.
Read above...
WI is the only state in the union where Veteran’s Day is not a state holiday. From a recent news article, “In Governor Tony Evers’ state budget proposal, he moved to make Veterans Day and Juneteenth state holidays. However, Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee removed that provision.” No reason given why republicans keep voting it down. Maybe they think state employees don’t need another day off. The private sector is out there working on Veterans Day.
I don't know why, but in high school I took great interest in the Battle of Verdun, which led to studying The Somme, Passchendaele, and others. What was suffered for the eventual outcome of a few inches of dirt being traded back and forth is almost beyond belief.
Matt Yglesias has an interesting open access piece on the impact of rearranging the parties fighting for those few inches of dirt, predicated on Italy joining the Central Powers.
https://www.slowboring.com/p/what-if-italy-joined-the-central-b75?publication_id=159185&post_id=178535353&isFreemail=false&r=73eks&triedRedirect=true
That's a good piece. Thanks.
You are most welcome.
Read the Guns of August at about age 10.. Great book.
Same here, I was about 12-13. Definitely a great book.
Thanks, Cynthia, to your family for their service and to you for letting us know on this day.
Very nice commemoration of our service members, thanks much.
Thank you for the feedback.
Good morning. 23 degrees here with highs in the 30s. Supposed to warm up later in the week.
The mothership is reporting on the housing crisis, while the FP headlines “Inside Trump’s Crypto Cash Machine”.
Shout out to all my fellow veterans in CSLF. Thank you for your service!
Besides myself (Army) my family includes my late father (WWII Army) and my brother-in-law and his son (Army). In my wife’s family, vets included my late father-in-law (Navy) a brother-in-law (Air Force), a retired Marine officer and veteran of Desert Storm, and his daughter, a serving Navy officer.
For myself, my service was peacetime, and I got far more from my service than I gave. Many others, the combat vets, gave more. Some gave all.
37 here at 9:40. Brrrr.
I am grateful for your service and that of your family.
29 degrees here, and a couple inches of snow on the ground. Sigrid's grandchildren are here (no school) and last night they went out and made a mess of the pristine snow in the front yard with snow angels, etc.
Thank you for your service.
You have a family full of good, too!
40 degrees now, to get to 71, then will start dropping when our ChaCha class starts... but that'll warm us up. Just say'n.
It's cold here, too. I'm taking Vlad, Epic, and Teengirl to our medical practice this morning for a vaccine (Epic) and blood samples (Vlad and Teengirl).
New From Muscadine Bloodline, "Peter from Picayune": https://youtu.be/hzOfnwngrTA?si=M4CW2AvoQnxIOAVi
oh, btw, they'll be in our area for some good country music/dancing in April. It gets crazy crowded so we won't be going...
this part (well, all of it, but...):
'That boy fights for you agree or disagree
That boy wouldn't want a welcome home parade
Wouldn't wanna talk about it anyway
He's seen some shit no one should ever see
Yeah, he's twice the man that most will ever be'
when I was in college, during Vietnam, there were some guys who would absolutely NOT talk about what they experienced. If talk of the war came up, they'd leave the room...
That's not uncommon. It took a long time for even our WWII vets to open up. Some never did.
A lot of those who served came home permanently damaged. In retrospect, I think it's at the heart of a lot of my generation's issues with their fathers.
yep, my dad didn't, except for his photography part of it.
I asked my grandfather if he knew any Civil War veterans when he was a kid. He said he did, but they didn't talk about it.
Human nature.
I think it’s in “The Power of Bad” by Baumeister/Tierney, but the counterpart to PTSD that gets little press is “post-traumatic growth” syndrome (or is it a syndrome? Hmm…). It is far more common in humans to experience tough, potentially traumatic events and walk away processing these in our own minds in ways by which we learn that we *can* in fact handle the challenges, and that we gain inner strength knowing that we have, in fact, managed to do so.
It may be in Junger’s book “Tribe” where this is also discussed, as well as the tendency of combat veterans *not* to talk about their experiences. My understanding is that such veterans are most likely to open up when among their fellow veterans who shared those battlefield experiences, remembering their fallen and since-deceased fellows.
I’m guessing the reasons for not wanting to talk about it are as wide-ranging and diverse as are the individuals who experienced them firsthand.
I recall reading the idea that anyone who experiences trauma can have "post-traumatic stress," but it's only a disorder or syndrome if it's causing the person significant problems in functioning.
Muscadine Bloodline is a great name.
I thought the same thing. Band name envy.
It was a good day to release this song. They've got some considerably better music than this.
Love this poem
I know a lot of Vietnam veterans.
My husband (was not my husband at the time), while not officially in the war, he was in the army, 'loaned' out to special forces. He was in Cambodia for awhile, very close to an area where the vegetation was killed off - yep, by agent orange, at that time, not known by any of those stationed there. When he was in his 30's he began having severe seizures & discovered a non-malignant brain tumor, which was removed. That itself was risky, but he said he had no choice because the seizures were controlling his life & he had custody of his daughter. No one would give any direct connection to agent orange & for years there was cover-up for many of the proven medical results from it... anyway, his big scar & indentation on top of his head has meant he's been bald since then & shaves that area around the ears & back to look less like a clown.
He has always said a good friend of mine who served in Vietman as a Medic is the bravest person he knows.
My mom had a good friend in The Villages who was a survivor of the Battle of the Bulge. He loved the Florida heat!