Dreaming the World

A wet, calm, densely foggy day, leaves floating ever so slowly down in drifts of colour. Last night we had an intense thunderstorm, lightening rippling across the sky in all directions. The heavy rain stripped most of the leaves from our trees, although a few maples are insistently holding on to colour.

I have not seen the deer, but a few birds continue to visit the yard, and particularly the Poke Berry. Each day there is less cover for them, and they seem to hang more closely together in small flocks. Occasionally a murmuration of starlings arises from the trees or a neighbour’s roof.

Tomorrow is Veterans’ Day. I am the only male on my dad’s side of the family who did not have a turn at military service, polio having made that impossible. My father served in the Air Force for thirty years, through three major wars. He was on the ground in Vietnam, where he made many Vietnamese friends whom he deeply loved. The abandonment of the Vietnamese by the U.S. government impacted him deeply, creating an unconventional form of PTSD that appeared to last the rest of his life.

In the end, my father grew to strongly oppose the war in Vietnam, and the wars of imperialism that followed. As he continued to serve as active duty military, and then became a retiree, he encouraged me and my friends to protest and mobilize, to demand a humane end to an irrational, greed based, war.

I often think about how he might react to the present moment. As a Native man I know he would not be surprised. As he was someone who took serving and protecting the country and constitution very seriously, I know he would be enraged, as would both of Jennie’s step-fathers, one of whom, as a Marine, was at the flag raising on Iwo Jima at age 16.

I have a vivid memory from the fall of 1971 or so. I was walking down the street in our tiny, peaceful, beautiful Ohio village when a car backfired. One of our friends, recently returned from duty in Nam, dove under the grate and into a drainage well located at the edge of the street. He was not a small guy and extracting him was not easy. I have often thought that moment said it all.