“The Last Journey”
#2 Traveling
Light
Today is a big news
day. Lots of things going on all over
the world as I begin to take the next steps into the war zone. Five more troops were killed in Afghanistan
today, two sailors are presumed to have been taken hostage and North Korea is
threatening nuculear war with the US and South Korea. In my past experiences, things like this
always transpire when I embark on important journeys.
Yesterday, while catching
some time in-between jet lag taking over my body and trying to organize and
re-organize my belongings, I happened to come across General Stanley
McChrystal’s retirement ceremony on the television news. I decided to watch it intently and listen to
exactly what he had to say. The man is
about my age, perhaps a year older. He
has been married to the same woman for 33-years, and I’ve been married to
my wife for 36-years. He spoke straight
up and without any political dilly-dallying around. I always try to do the
same. He spoke plenty about his care for
the troops. In short, I think the
General and I have lots in common.
He spoke passionately
about people in his life that were there for him during extremely difficult
moments. He mentioned right from the
get-go, the matter of the Rolling Stone reporter incident which was on everyone’s
mind. He confronted the issue head on and
made everyone in the audience feel at ease with a good chuckle about it
all. In short, this man spoke frankly,
honestly and directly. What I heard most
in his speech however was the crushing hurt in his words with the feeling of
leaving the mission behind. General
Stanley A. McChrystal retires from the most important job in the world, (in my
opinion) and a day or two later I head into the battle ground he left. To say the least, this one powerful turn of
events strikes at the very core of my being as far as ironic timing goes. I am at ease with those who have filled his
shoes and know they are quite capable to finish the job. I just know how much McChrystal cared for the
boots on the ground.
After two days here in
It surely does not take
too much to realize that at this very moment,
I’ve been busy the
past two days, getting my things ready for the trip from here and working on
the computer to keep my mailing list up to date and functioning properly. At the moment, I’m in the pax terminal
waiting for the powers that be to release a seat for me. Already I’ve been bumped off one
inbound flight. I’m waiting for
the next one, just like other folks in my shoes. We’ll see what happens next. In the mean time, I’m glad I’m
travelling light. It’s still a
headached to lug around a backpack, PPE gear, camera bag and lap top. At least I’m in a nice facility at the
moment. I wonder where the Rolling Stone
reporter is these day that ended Gen. McChrystal’s career. I wonder if he’s willing to go look for
the two sailors that are missing outside the wire. Something tells me he wouldn’t want to
do that. McChrystal isn’t there to
cover his back.
Jim Spiri
mailto:jimspiri@yahoo.com?subject=The
Last Journey