I don't know who the author is of what you are about to read but I do know he or she has written a powerful view of the 6th day of creation.
When the Lord was creating Vietnam Veterans, He
was into His 6th day of overtime when an angel appeared.
"You're certainly doing a lot of fiddling
around on this one."
And God said, "Have you seen the specs on
this order? A Vietnam Vet has to be able to run 5 klicks through the bush
with a full pack on, endure with barely any sleep for
days, enter tunnels his higher ups wouldn't consider doing, and keep
his weapons clean and operable. He has to be able to sit in his fox
hole all night during an attack, hold his buddies as they die, walk
point in unfamiliar territory known to be VC infested, and somehow
keep his senses alert for danger. He has to be in top physical
condition existing on c-rats and very little rest. And he has to have
6 pairs of hands."
The angel shook his head slowly and said, "6 pair of hands....no way."
The Lord says, "It's not the hands that
are causing me problems. It's the 3 pair of eyes a Nam Vet has
to have."
"That's on the standard model?" asked
the angel.
The Lord nodded."One pair that sees through
elephant grass, another pair here in the side of his head for his
buddies, another pair here in front that can look reassuringly
at his bleeding, fellow soldier and say, "You'll make
it"... when he knows he won't."
"Lord, rest, and work on this tomorrow."
"I can't," said the Lord. "Not
until I have a model that can carry a wounded soldier
1,000 meters during a fire fight, calm the fears of the latest
FNG and feed a family of 4 on a grunt's paycheck."
The angel walked around the model and said,
"Can it think?"
"You bet," said the Lord. "It can
quote much of the UCMJ, understands 'non sibi sed patriae', knows what 'de
oppresso liber' means, recite all his general orders, and engage in a
search and destroy mission in less time than it takes for his fellow Americans
back home to discuss the morality of the War and all the while, keep
his sense of humor."
The Lord gazed into the future and said,
"He will also endure being vilified and spit on when he returns
home, rejected and crucified by the very ones for which he fought."
Finally, the angel slowly ran his finger across
the vet's cheek, and said, "There's a leak...I told
you that you were trying to put too much into this model."
"That's not a leak", said the Lord.
"That's a tear."
"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.
"It's for bottled up emotions, for holding
fallen soldiers as they die, for commitment to that funny piece of
cloth called the American flag, for the terror of living with PTSD
for decades after the war, alone with its' demons with no one to care
or help."
"You're a genius," said the angel,
casting a gaze at the tear.
The lord looked very somber, as if seeing down
eternity's distant shores.
"I didn't put it there," He said.
A Veteran is someone who, at one point in
his life wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States
of America" for an amount
of "up to and including my life". That is
Honor and there are way too many people in this country who no longer
understand it."
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