War, what is it good for?

Sitting at dinner tonight with the family, I was taken aback at how Christmasy it felt. A lounging sunday and the red table cloth. The whole family in the house in various rooms and rain falling outside. Togetherness.

And then again as we were talking about voting and the war and the soon to be draft and what we would do about it, I was feeling distanced. That these times that were living in now. Soon, they will be no more. I almost felt like one day we would no longer have a house and I would no longer lounge around on a sunday free of fear, hunger and death. A premonition? I haven't done all the happy things I've wanted to do. I don't like thinking that there's an invisible deadline for the end of my happy youth. War torn countries already have sorrow, death, hunger and fear. They do not know days like mine. I do not wish to know days like theirs. And yet I know eventually we will all share that same sorrow.

I didn't like feeling those two contradictions. My past and my future? I do not want to go to war to fight. I do not want my brother to go either. So many lives are lost for a cause? For our country? I do salute our troops. Those who volunteered to save our country. But I am opposed to violence. I do not wish to kill or be killed. I find little hope in a future of war. Why can't we all just get along? Stop the killing, and the killing of the innocent. If I were god, I would surely punish those who deserve it before they live their lives out and die. I would make sure they were never born.

Absolutely nothing.

old junk ...new junk