The arrival of Thanksgiving starts the best season of them all. For those out of harm’s way, such can be just another day in the blindness of taking so very much for granted … familiarity breed’s contempt … comes to mind.
To find yourself so far away from home with only remembrance as your only connection to those holiday scenes that play out everyday day, can be a lonely place. This place has found men standing there since wars began: with every Christmas song; with every Christmas card; with every Christmas cookie; with every dream of Christmas from before, and of those to come; pleasure and pain simultaneously rips through your heart.
You must know that you are not alone. You are in the thoughts of every free American, and that freedom is being paid for by your sacrifice, your loneliness. Christmas cards, cookies, and care packages are on the way from places all across America. These gifts to you are from the stranger at the barber shop, the women at the local church down the street, the kids who ran fundraising events at school, and even veterans who once stood where you do now.
Let the power of the love of so many give you the power to make it, to be here next Christmas, so that you can, in turn, give back.
On this Thanksgiving Day go with the wish for your safe return, and for the return of peace by your doing.
Keep your head down,
Henry Hill, Plum Pennsylvania
No comments:
Post a Comment