Homecoming

It's a happy day in my house. My brother's on his way home (or he may be home right now) from Iraq. Everything is sort of veiled in secrecy--when he's officially back, what he was doing over there--but all that matters is he's back (or is close to being back) home.

I'm not sure how families coped in the past, and as far as many current families go, we were blessed that he was only over there for five months and that the insurgency doesn't have an air force or anything that can compete with our planes and pilots. Big sigh of relief. But really, he was over fighting a war. That's what he was doing, day in and day out. That's what a lot of our nation's sons and daughters are doing. While I'm here whining about dates, or procrastinating on my kitchen, or worrying about squirrels in my yard. We are so lucky.

Over the holidays he and I were IMing and it just blew my mind that there he was, half a world away in distance, but in experiences, in emotions, in fear, in culture, and in hope for the future of a stable democracy he may as well have been on Pluto. Everything he's witnessed, and everything that is happening over there is so convenient for us to not even think about. I mean here we are IMing each other and I had to leave our conversation so I could go with my mom to a movie, and he had to leave to go to war. And I could get all, "but they are over there so that us lucky Americans can go to our movies," but I won't. What I will say is that it breaks my heart that they are over there fighting for us, only most of us don't even think about that because it's not on our radar. And they are over there fighting for democracy, but that all the fighting probably won't make it so that there are lucky Iraqis that can go to movies too. I truly believe that education is so critical to democratic success, but anytime a leader emerges, one of their own who is educated and understands democracy and has a legitimate chance of affecting positive change, they are assassinated. It seems so bleak to me. No matter how long we are there and no matter how many of our own--not to mention their own--lay down their lives for the cause, will it really make an impact?

That makes me ache.

But my brother is home, and I could not be happier. I just wish he'd never have to go back.