Some Facts about the Cold War &etc.
That time I
refused to stand for the National Anthem being played over a film of daisies in
a field, girls in bikinis, and fighter planes, and the kid from 8th
grade asked if I was a communist—it’s lodged in my mind, diamond-like.
My mother
told me never to be polite at my own expense.
Everything
else told me always to be polite at my own expense.
When I was
a young teenager, I had a summer job at a library warehouse that shipped books
to Army bases all over Germany. Before
my first day of shelving books and slapping on shipping labels, I had to report
to an empty chapel-like building on post and swear to uphold the Constitution. I was 14.
When I was
11, Colonel Bean came to our class to explain to us that our nuclear arsenal
was a deterrent to war. When we asked some
questions about that, he asked us how we thought things should be in the
world. People shouldn’t have to worry
about where their food is coming from.
Everyone should have access to what they need. People should feel secure. He told us that was communism.
My son
tells me, One day I just became alive. Then asks, What did I say when I became alive?
(He didn’t say
anything. Just looked at me like, “I’m
here. Here I am.” Like he belongs here.)
I don’t
know where any of us are going with this.
Something
that wanders away to bloom somewhere else is called a volunteer.
