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  <a href="/blog/blog/5852487/camouflage-backpack-crew-cut-blue-eyes">Camouflage Backpack, Crew Cut &amp; Blue Eyes</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><!--StartFragment-->  <p class="MsoNormal">He said his name was Todd and that he felt at home in the Dallas Airport. We were wandering among a sea of men and women dressed in BDU’s. It was the middle of October, and I was loaded down with my guitar and a backpack full of music gear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">We had crossed paths in the terminal when he asked</span>,  "<i>What do you do</i> to carry one of <i>those</i> around<span style="font-style:normal">?" He was referring to my guitar.</span></p>  <p class="MsoNormal"> I replied, “I play music for a living. What do <i>you</i> do to carry one of <i>those</i> around?” I pointed to his camouflage backpack. </p><p class="MsoNormal">"I blow things up."</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p></p>  <p class="MsoNormal">I wasn't sure exactly what to say to that. And as I looked at him in a loss for words, he offered to carry my guitar. </p><p class="MsoNormal">"You want to walk with me and carry my guitar <i>all the way to my gate??</i>" </p><p class="MsoNormal">He said, “<i>Well, of course</i>, we don’t just kill people.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p></p>  <p class="MsoNormal">My heart fell. That's not why I had asked that.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p></p>  <p class="MsoNormal">I stumbled on my words, “I know…I <i>know</i> that’s not why you do what you do. What you do is <i>really</i>…hard.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p></p>  <p class="MsoNormal">He shrugged apathetically. “It’s not that hard anymore.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p></p>  <p class="MsoNormal">My words left me. I wanted to wrap him in a blanket of light and take the walled-up angst out of those blue eyes...those blue eyes that had their “coming of age” in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was younger than me in years, yet, with the toll of war, his eyes were older.</p>  <p class="MsoNormal">We talked about music and how we both play Tom Petty on the guitar. We talked about where he was stationed, his two deployments to the Middle East and his nicotine habit. I told him about my journey from nursing to music, about playing a very heartfelt show at Ft. Hood in '07, and about my childhood memory of catching a snake while visiting my Uncle at Ft. Riley.</p><p class="MsoNormal">When I gave him my card, I apprehensively said, “You can check out my tunes online, I don’t know if you’ll like them. They might not be your style of music.”</p>  <p class="MsoNormal">He replied, “You’d be surprised by what I like and what I listen to.”</p>  <p class="MsoNormal">My mind stopped. “You’re right. I don’t know.”</p>  <p class="MsoNormal">He walked with me to Starbucks, waited for me to feed my caffeine habit, and accompanied me back to the gate with my guitar in his hand.</p>  <p class="MsoNormal">In the space between our words, we walked side by side in silence and respect, honoring each other’s stories. I imagined that my carrying a guitar and backpack on tour must be much lighter than what he carries on his tours.</p>  <p class="MsoNormal">But <i>really</i>, what <i>do</i> I know?</p><p></p>  <p class="MsoNormal">I know that I’m grateful to have carried my guitar off the plane that day. It was a doorway for the guy with the camouflage backpack, crew cut and blue eyes to share his story with me, and for me to do the same with him. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p></p>  <p class="MsoNormal">On this Veteran’s Day, and in the trail of days before and after, I honor the stories of those who serve and have served in our military.</p>  <p class="MsoNormal"><i>It is in the sharing of our stories that <b>we come home</b>.</i></p><p></p>  <!--EndFragment-->   <p></p> <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lXbEQ_JPrmE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US">
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  <a href="/blog/blog/5852488/six-feet-of-clay-reflections-from-a-cemetery-in-missouri">Six Feet of Clay: Reflections from a Cemetery in Missouri</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RkjVQ_obNRU/TMk9MEFDjVI/AAAAAAAAAG0/6055EMBSE4Y/s1600/IMAG0309.jpg"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RkjVQ_obNRU/TMk70AIUJiI/AAAAAAAAAGs/K_l8glJ1VfM/s1600/tree.jpg"><br></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RkjVQ_obNRU/TL-5Rj-pjDI/AAAAAAAAAGc/t0ExtcFknOc/s1600/6+feet.jpg"><img src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RkjVQ_obNRU/TL-5Rj-pjDI/AAAAAAAAAGc/t0ExtcFknOc/s320/6+feet.jpg" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530342578801183794" style=" margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 191px;" /></a><i><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><br></i></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><div style="text-align: left; display: inline !important; ">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i>"</i><i>Six feet of clay makes every man equal</i><i>," </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><div style="text-align: left; display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">the epitaph reads.</span></div></i></span>
</div></i></span></div></i><div><br></div><div>I stop in my tracks. </div><div><br></div><div>That's quite a final statement to leave to the living.</div><div><br></div><div>My mind spins. What would inspire this?</div><div><br></div><div>A lifetime of events epitomizing human "inequality"? A country freshly emancipated from slavery with Jim Crow laws "regulating" racial discrimination; a Women's Suffrage Movement; World War I with its genocide and ethnic cleansing; the Great Depression and its economic fall-out drastically devastating minority groups; World War II and the annihilation of millions of Jews and those deemed "unfit for society" by a dominating class; Rosa Parks' big stand; and Martin Luther King Jr.'s early work in the Civil Rights Movement?</div><div><br></div><img src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RkjVQ_obNRU/TL_M5wEBxaI/AAAAAAAAAGk/0nSAQesf5aE/s400/cinder+graves.jpg" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530364159960663458" style=" margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 400px;" />Yes, Mr. Warren's time on Earth had plenty of fodder for such a statement.<div><br></div><div>
<i></i>It's a beautiful Fall day in Springfield, Missouri. I wander through Hazelwood Cemetery to the once segregated south-side where "people of color" were buried. I find graves marked by cinder-block-like stones with no epitaphs, some with faint letters scratched into them.</div><div><br></div><div>There's a timeless quality to the words <i>"six feet of clay makes every man equal".</i> </div><div><br></div><div>Fifty-three years later, I am bombarded by headlines of hate-crimes, bullying, suicide, war, genocides and more.</div><div><br></div><div>It all seems ridiculous and insane. Because when all is said and done and lives are gone, what's left? </div><div><br></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RkjVQ_obNRU/TMk9MEFDjVI/AAAAAAAAAG0/6055EMBSE4Y/s400/IMAG0309.jpg" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533020894664035666" style=" margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 239px; height: 400px; " /></span><div>A gravestone maybe.</div><div><br></div><div>Often a family. </div><div><br></div><div>Always a lesson. </div><div><br></div><div>And the web of energy woven by a life-thread. </div><div><br></div><div>Fifty-three years later, Mr. Warren's life-thread weaves from a stone inscription </div><div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>into my thoughts </div><div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span>into this blog </div><div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">   </span>and now into you.</div><div><br></div><div>And Hazelwood Cemetery is no longer segregated.</div><div><br></div><div>
<i>I find peace here.</i> In the lessons of <i>transformation</i>.<i> </i>In<i> being part </i>of the transformation.</div><div><br></div><div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> And i</span>n the poetry of epitaphs and gravestone art...Symbols of human love and connection. Threads of energy that emanate <i>timelessly</i>.</div><div><br></div><div>
<i>"Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change forms."</i> ~First Law of Thermodynamics</div><div><br></div><div>Every step is a <i>choice</i> in how I transform my energy.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>
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</article>  <article class="post blog-article full-item post-full" data-controller="zoogle-video" data-action="message@window-&gt;zoogle-video#handleVimeoPostMessage">
    
<h2 class="heading-secondary heading-blog alt-font">
  <a href="/blog/blog/5852489/singing-with-vern">Singing with Vern</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RkjVQ_obNRU/SrgQDG-Q_YI/AAAAAAAAAFA/w3qpdzIv2UU/s1600-h/cricket.jpg"><img src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RkjVQ_obNRU/SrgQDG-Q_YI/AAAAAAAAAFA/w3qpdzIv2UU/s320/cricket.jpg" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384071000118852994" style=" margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 160px;" /></a>So...I've gotten a bit attached to a cricket in my house.  <div><br></div><div>It's the singing thing.  </div><div><br></div><div>We both do it, and his chirping from sunset until early morning sounds like a lullaby to me.  </div><div><br></div><div>Maybe it's because it reminds me of growing up on the farm and the intense connection that I felt as a child to nature.  </div><div><br></div><div>It's different in the city--much more subtle...</div><div>But Nature makes her way through the concrete and human boundaries:</div><div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>from the ants who dare to venture through my kitchen,</div><div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span></span>to the grasshopper on my rose bush, </div><div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>the hummingbirds and butterflies outside my picture window, </div><div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span></span>the bats flying overhead in the Fall during my evening dog-walks, </div><div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and </span>the coyote that taunts the neighborhood dogs...</div><div>To the cricket that chirps in my bathroom at night.</div><div><br></div><div>There's something calming about his song... especially amidst the incessant sirens and occasional domestic disputes of neighbors nearby.     </div><div><br></div><div>I'm not sure if it was the creative side of my brain, or the crazy side (besides, I think the two are connected)--but my brain decided to name this cricket Vern.  </div><div><br></div><div>He reminded me of one of my favorite childhood books <b>The Mouse and the Motorcycle</b> by Beverly Cleary--about a mouse named Ralph who had many adventures with human encounters living in a run-down inn.</div><div><br></div><div>All this came about the morning that Vern decided to crawl on my toe while I was taking a shower.  It was one of those moments for me, where I was startled to feel something on my foot, and then wondered if it might be the gecko that occasionally sneaks into my shower. </div><div><br></div><div>But sure enough, I looked down, and it was Vern. </div><div><br></div><div>And he was NOT in good shape.  </div><div><br></div><div>I hoisted him onto the tile outside my shower.  He wasn't moving.  By the time I got out, he was on his back, and I thought that he had bit cricket dust.  </div><div><br></div><div>I flipped him over, but I admit--I didn't have much hope for the poor little guy.</div><div><br></div><div>As I made coffee afterwards, I hummed away in honor of Vern...thinking about how I would miss his evening chirping and how his exodus into the shower must have been very tragic.    </div><div><br></div><div>An hour later, I went back into the bathroom. Vern's legs were responding to touch, and his antennas were no longer waterlogged and stuck to the tile.  </div><div><br></div><div>I was amazed...a cricket resurrection!</div><div><br></div><div>The last couple nights as he's chirping from different corners of my house, I just smile knowing that Life has an uncanny way of transcending my expectations.  </div><div><br></div><div>AND...I've started to make music with him.  </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span></div><div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span>He's got a great sense of rhythm and sings in the key of D. </div></div>
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    <p class="post-info"><span data-time="2009-09-21T15:15:00-07:00" title="September 21, 2009 15:15">09/21/2009</span></p>

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