#02012013

Foto de SHINee publicada en los medios oficiales de 'Etude House'.

Levi, my son                     Allen, my nephew               Matthew, my nephew

 United States Air Force     United States Army          United States Marine Corps

The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, pages 126-127, "...It was entirely automatic...I did not ponder issues of morality or politics or military duty...I had already thrown the grenade before telling myself to throw it..."

My last post on this novel may be very different than anyone else's post.  Seeing the three photos of my son and two nephews, I hope it gives you some insight into my perspective as I read this book.  The above quotes reached out and grabbed me so much that I actually had to put the book down.  As a literature student, reading this book for most is just a mental exercise but to me, as a mother and an aunt to these three men, I am a very interested party. 

I am counting on their training to bring them home.  I want their actions to be reflexive and automatic.  I don't want them thinking about morality or politics or even military duty.  I want them to do exactly what they were trained to do. 

The author describes his reflexive action in these short three quotes and describes his emotional paralysis resulting from his actions over a couple of chapters. Imagine if he had thought first and acted second.  His imaginary hind-sight, his extensive pondering, about the man he killed was too much for me.  I kept wondering why he had ZERO imaginary hind-sight, or even simple pondering, for what would have happened to his "brothers-in-arms" had this enemy acted first with his training.

Song of the Day 02/01/2013:

Title: As Long As You Love Me

Artist: Justin Bieber

Album: Believe

Genre: R&B/Dancepop/Dubstep