Column: Something about Nothing, by Julie Seedorf

I live with a Vietnam veteran. His involvement in that war changed the imprint of his life.

A few months ago I watched as fire engines and cars of kids paraded through my community of Wells honoring another man, their teacher, who was leaving for active duty.

As I watched that parade I felt tears form in my eyes for a man I didn’t know who was leaving his family, his friends and his job to serve our country. I felt tears form in my eyes for my husband and the men I knew who had fought for our country and who I know still carry those memories with them many years later.

Every day I go about my work. I read the newspaper. I pray for those that are serving our country. I pray for those that served it in the past. The direction of my day and the daily prayers has a hazard of becoming part of a routine. When something becomes a routine it is something you do and perform without taking stock of the reality of a situation. It is something those of us do that are not directly affected by a situation.

The parade that I experienced was a reminder to me of what these soldiers are giving up for our country. They will be changed by the experience. Their families have to live with the reality of being without their mother or father while they are away sometimes for extended periods of time.

Parents have to live each day praying for their son or daughters safety. We all pray for our children’s safety each day but I have to believe that prayer is different and has more of an urgency and an anguish when you have a child fighting to protect our country.

These families’ lives will be changed forever by this experience too.

We should all be changed by the sacrifices these men and women are making for us. It is easy for us to forget when we are not reminded on a daily basis of what war costs us. War and changed lives gets lost in the glitz of the media.

When I first met my husband I remember the first time we heard a firecracker explode at a celebration. I was almost pulled to the ground. To this day we do not attend fireworks. When we were first married I remember the nights I was awakened by my spouse having a bad dream and a sleepless night. It has taken over 40 years to hear some of the details. I will never hear it all.

I cannot understand it all. I didn’t walk in those shoes but like many spouses and families we experience some of the pain along with our veteran. War changes the imprint of our lives too. We must never forget that in the years to come. That imprint is forever and our support needs to be forever, too.

It is Memorial Day. It is a day to remember the past veterans and to say thank you to those who serve us today. It also a day to support the veteran’s families and friends and say thank you to them for the sacrifice they make for all of us.

I took the sun rising each morning for granted until my husband shared one of his memories with me. He talked about being thankful to see the sun rise one morning in Vietnam because it meant he was still alive.

Thank you, Lord, for the sunrise.

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net.