It's Not That I'm Retired, I Just

We Sit At Our Consoles And Play "gears Of War", But We Don't See Images From War. We Don't Turn On The News And See The Evidence Of War, The Result Of War. Maybe Twice A Year, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, We'll Go Out, We'll Hang Our Flags, We'll Try To Inculcate In Our Children Some Sense Of National Honor For The Fallen. But Really, We Don't See It. We Just Don't See The Pictures. There's No Drive-by On The Freeway Of Death Up Close. So We Don't Really See Bravery.

I'm A Layperson. I Barely Got Out Of High School. I Have No Business Telling People What To Do Or My Big Philosophy On Life. I'm Certainly Not Going To Write Any Sort Of Memoir.

Exchange The Words 'have To' With 'get To.' Exchange The Word 'can't' With 'unwilling.

My Mother Was The Most Beautiful Woman I Have Ever Seen. There Are Moments When I Remember Her Beauty, Unadorned, Unposed, Not In Some Artificial Place Like A Set Or A Photo Call But Rather Captured Outdoors In Nature, Where She Took My Breath Away. When Those Moments Surface, I Miss Her The Most.

I Actually Think There's An Incredible Amount Of Self-knowledge That Comes With Getting Older.