So here's what I've been thinking... I've been talking with a lot of veterans. I've been going to the book talks, listening, watching ... and there is definitely a sense of family that comes through - no matter what the branch of service or the particular experience, it seems that there is a deeper knowledge that those of us who have not been through war simply can't understand. No matter how I search within, how much I listen and ask, no matter how hard I try to pull from my own life it seems as if I am only a spectator. And of course I am just that: a spectator.
I'm grateful to be one, actually. I'm grateful to have never been in a war. Yet, I also feel a bit uneasy in my role as spectator because I'm not just a spectator when it comes to history or war, but I'm also a spectator to the personal horrors recollected by veterans. I am witness to their current state of being as a result of those horrors. I'm grateful for the privilege of being witness and yet immensely troubled by it.
Men and women writhe with survivor guilt, they agonize over memories they can't quite bring themselves to recall, and yet they acknowledge the impact of their personal shop of horrors as it manifests in their daily lives and impacts those around them. What internal struggle to reconcile it all.
Read Good Form, Field Trip and Ghosts.
Then read about the My Lai massacre in your reader's guide
Next, go to http://www.history.com/videos/my-lai-massacre#my-lai-massacre
Now go to http://www.history.com/videos/my-lai-massacre#remembering-fallen-friends
What seems the most potent?
Now consider...
How do you understand the role of 'story' and the activity of 'telling stories' in the way that people, veterans, and you yourself think about your lived experience? How does the 'crafting' of a story help or hinder the telling and retelling of our lives?
