Blog 1702 – 05.19.2020

To The Moon And Back

Fifty Years Ago

Fifty years ago South Vietnam

Farthest I had been from home

Afghanistan fighting longer yet

Do we such roads have to roam?

I’ve had reminders oft along the way

It seemed so long, my 11 month stay

For home, friends, family I did pray

Did they miss me as much each day?

And, oh these many longer years

I remember mostly without tears

The ones I met there & left behind

Still twenty in my 70 year old mind.

I often write of how important it is not to let the ghosts from the past or the future scare us out of fully living today but some memories from the past and dreams for the future are not nightmares but treasures and sweet dreams. A stream of consciousness does not need to always be a distraction from but can be an enhancement of our joy. I thought I was a man fifty years ago but I was yet a boy. I turned twenty in South Vietnam. Many others of my generation did too, Americans, Vietnamese, and those from many other countries that aided the north or south in that foolish and wasteful war.

I believe all wars are foolish and wasteful but unlike many I no longer believe that “there will always be wars and rumors of wars.” In another poem that I wrote fifty years ago that was published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes back then I penned, “Oh, that wars would end and that lovers did not part.” I am still praying and trusting that another verse will eventually trump the above often quoted one: “Ask whatsoever you will believing and you shall receive.” When all of us want peace more than war, all wars will just have to cease.

Let us not wait another fifty years to be able to say and truly what has been said of so many wars, that this war truly was the war to end all wars. This is my Christmas and everyday wish, my most fervent prayer and intention: “That wars would end and that lovers did not part.”

Loving you all to the moon and back And hey you did a great job of hanging that thing. Quite a lovely night-light, really.

Your friend and fellow traveler.

David White