I have noticed that you can’t stop looking at my snow globe. I am not going to share it so you might as well stop tormenting yourself. No you can’t touch it and don’t think that you can do that whole grab and run thing because you are not nearly fast enough for that. I am being serious. That was a gift to me from my mother and you can not have it. Alright I will let you shake it once but you have to give me your car keys as collateral. Yes I know that it is very pretty when you shake it up but it is mine. Okay that’s enough put it down now and then you can have your keys back. No you can’t shake it again. I said you could shake it only once. Put it down now. What? You are going to keep it and I can have your car? That doesn’t make any sense. Your car is worth so much more than that snow globe is… Give me the snow globe back. I don’t want you car. I want my snow globe. Wait you not gonna? (Door slams) He ran with it. (Desk drawer opens and I place another cheap snow globe on the corner of my desk). Twenty four snow globs for fifteen bucks. Best money I ever spent. (Keys jingling as I toss them into the air and snag them mid flight).

Today on the way down to my girlfriends a car pulled of the road near the highway to park. The two men exited their brand new 2006 Pontiac Sunfire dressed in very raggedy clothes. Their car was infinitly nicer than mine. They walked around to the back of their car and pulled out cardboard signs from the truck and hopped over the fence to make their way down to the highway to panhandle during rush hour traffic. Did I mention their car was brand new? This has got to stop people! Stop giving money to people on the side of the road because you are not giving money to the homeless and you are not bettering their situation. Okay so some of these individuals may actually need help but we need to use the soup kitchens and homeless shelters so that the people in need get help. Instead of that we are giving money to people who have enough money but just figured out that they can make more money, cash, by just taking it off of people during rush hour. Okay so here is the plan. STOP IT!

Dear Mrs. Sheehan,

First let me offer whatever meaningless condolences a complete stranger can. Although I have lost loved ones and yes even unexpectedly, I have never lost a child to such a tragedy as war. Even though our grieving times were very dissimilar I do, truly, grieve with you for your son.

There are never any words to ease the heart that are new to the ear but I do wish to offer my own none the less. I honor you and your son for what he has done. He chose to take up the call to defend all Americans in a somewhat ambiguous war. He bravely stood beside others of the same caliber and defended this great land even when he did not receive the most resound affirmation of his actions from the home front. For that I, and the nation at large, do apologize. We did not mean to offer anything but our whole hearted support to your child but a few misguided, if not heartfelt, cries resonated negatively from our shores.

Wither or not anyone agrees with what we are doing over in foreign lands we must strongly back our men and women of the armed forces to let them know their efforts are not in vain. I suspect that is the chief reason for this letter. All be it that you may never read this letter and its words perhaps will fail in encouraging your heart I still write it to the men and women who are “over there” as the saying goes.

Firstly your son, Mrs. Sheehan, is a hero. More over than just a man who gave his life in battle but for the principles he stood for and what he gave to other. Among those principles, mainly, that all men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights; among which is the pursuit of happiness. I know that you are familiar with this sentiment but it truly rings true and proud in the actions of your child who fought to give a region of the world clouded with hate and tyranny a chance for peace. Perhaps this democracy will fail and perhaps this war will be disregarded as a fool’s quest but your son’s actions mimic if not are the greatest of qualities a man can posses. He was truly selfless in that he gave his principal right, the right to life, so that others could have a chance at a better life.

He also gave more than just his life in this conflict but the gifts that he gave to others rather than the one that he gave for them will be the longer lasting gift. Firstly he gave to those who were oppressed under a dictator of compliance or death hope. For many generations that section of the world has been plagued by an endless hatred coupled by oppression which knows no bounds. With the lifting of oppression and his offering of supreme love now an example has been set for those who were privileged enough to know your son. Yet that was not his chief gift for to those who would prey on the innocent and feast on the indulgences of the sympathetic he gave fear. Something that tyranny has not known in quite some time.

Even though the cost was great I do not feel it was it was in vain. Even though you are crying some endless amount of tears they are equaled with tears of gratitude by those he died to liberate. I hope that we all will, with solumn hearts, remember what cost your family has endured and with you honor him by ending tyranny for all time. That in his and the names of the others who have fought and died for freedom that we will never cease to stomp out the evils of people who lord themselves over others. That at the end of our days we have honor the memory of your departed son with a resounding peace and a strong hand held up against evil; stopping it from rearing its ugly head as it has so many times in the past.

Thank you Mrs. Sheehan for the gift you gave to the world in your son. Thank you for the example of selflessness he gave to a world of hatred and greed. There is no way to repay you for that gift and it would be a wasted endeavor to try. So we honor your son’s life and honor you.

Sincerely
The United States of America
A Citizen

I thought that I might give you a bit of a taste of the book that I am writing. It is kind of a Lord Of The Rings feel wherein you find yourself amidst the battle for the land of Churn as evil is mounting and there seems to be no hope as there is not a large enough army, easily dispensed, to defend the land. There is a point where our main character, Stiam Roughbark is wanting to sit and listen to the stories of old but he realizes that he must focus right now on the impending battle and there will be a time later, if indeed there is still an after, to sit around and think of the days that had gone by.

“His lifelong friend has been lost only to be replaced by something, someone much greater who had been there to witness the days of mighty battles and the fabled Twillage Army. Yet all his questions, his desires to hear of those days now seemed quite pointless in light of his recent acquaintance. All his questions about the past were lost in the murky fog of confusion and fear for the future. History itself held captive by an impending evil as old stories could not fend off present threats. There would be a time for tales around the warmth of a campfire with laughing and somber thoughts to sigh at, but for the time being the future laid hold of the present and stayed the voice of the past. Stiam was focused on the tasks ahead, although he did not, as of yet, know what they were.”

I love how this section grasps not only the feeling that Stiam is going thru but truly relates to how we get wrapped up in a moment that truly grabs hold of us and transcends, in that moment, all other thoughts and moments.