It is Saturday morning in my corner of the world. It is a cool morning for the end of July. I wanted to go outside, enjoy nature and clear my mind of the news of the world. I did for a few minutes but the last two weeks of non stop news about Hillary and Trump kept creeping into my thoughts at odd moments. While I was deadheading my petunias and daisies, more random thoughts entered my mind. One of those thoughts repeated something I had read several days ago, 'if you were born in 1949, like I was, then for almost 44% of your life the United States has been in a war somewhere.' I know my teenage and early adult life revolved around the Vietnam War. Dinner was eaten in silence as the t.v. reported another day, in another part of the world, where young people my age died.
It seemed remote until my senior year. It was a common known fact young men graduating high school usually either went to college or Vietnam.The draft was still in effect. I remember in Speech class we had to give a short speech on how we pictured our future. I think it was Ronnie Poole who said, "I am pretty sure I will spend my summer in beautiful downtown Saigon." We all laughed at the joke. In fact, we often quoted him at odd times when we talked about the war. That line stuck in my head. We were eighteen, young and invincible. A couple of years later I married a Marine. It really struck home then. Things turned out good for Tommy and me. All of our friends and family made it home safely from Vietnam. I am sure they were changed. The changes didn't show from the outside at that time.
As I pulled weeds out of my zinnia bed, I thought about a novel I read a few weeks ago. It was about the history of the world at war. Since the beginning of time, this world has been at war somewhere with someone. There was no twenty four hour news channels to report what was going on back then. Lack of knowledge did not stop the chaos. People created war to get what they wanted. They still do. At times other people or countries picked a side and joined in the fight. They still do. The right side did not always win. It still doesn't. And the world is still hanging on.
While outside, I dug up a new patch of ground. I didn't really need anything else planted I wanted to dig up fresh dirt and take a smell of the land. I wondered how many other people had lived where I live now. I have records but lots of people lived before those records were recorded. The dirt smelled good. It has too much clay to be fruitful on its own. We mix it with this and that to enrich the earth. I looked up at our woods and realize once again, I didn't plant any of those trees or wild flowers and they are beautiful. They made it through Indian raids, the Civil War and so far they have made it through my era of time. The soil worked fine for them.
Down the road about fifteen miles or so is a nuclear power plant. Tommy worked there enabling us to buy our home. When we bought it, the danger of a power plant never enter our minds. We still don't dwell on it. If it wasn't that it would be something else. The world isn't any safer than it was thousands of years ago. However, we have the ability to destroy our world...literally. It wouldn't take long either. Push a button, retaliate and push another button. . .keep on until no one is left standing. I hope that doesn't happen. I hope the grape vines we started will be producing grapes for our grandchildren. I hope the wild blackberries will be used to fill tummies with Nonnie's recipe for blackberry cobbler. I hope the small trees in our forest grow huge and tall.
I hope. . .
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