SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

BEHIND THE VETERANS DAY PARADE SEENS by (me!) sandra, tvgp

dancing around another computer glitch... the beautiful picture of bruce bennett with his wife..  its in my files, but wont upload in correct orientation..

but see if this hits you, the same way it hit me..

and i can't explain why sometimes i say my tatoo means conquer the world one man at a time with kindness, and sometimes i say it means courage, and sometimes i say, "i'm a rape survivor"

but time/place/person appropriateness i suppose...   a feeling i experience but can't describe..  its never pre-planned; just happens

in any case..  i told his wife, during a longer conversation we had in front of the museum on main in the hours before the parade began..

had learned about her husbands 3 tours in viet nam..   his reaction to the famous "can't count ships" comment during the recent presidential debates..  a great conversation..

and they asked about my tattoo..  and only because i said, "i'm a rape survivor" did i learn that, "I'm a rape survivor too!"   -and we high fived each other in a sister-survivor kind of way...    i think we share this in common with the veterans.. they have a certain brotherhood based solely on having a shared survivor experience; war

anyway..  she was 14.   and a rare, beautiful thing happened for her..   she contributes it with helping tremendously with her healing...   her dad immediately told her it was not her fault.   -powerful.

and you know what else was powerful..   how within the hour, when i was talking with veterans at the other end of main street  -i met a veteran (name?) who has lived in pleasanton for many, many years... but has never joined the VWF post...  he lives like walking distance from the veterans hall where they meet on saturday mornings..   why not? i asked him...   he wasn't sure...  he was a member of other clubs in distance places..  but he told me..   he never realized how many veterans lived here in pleasanton until he started wearing his hat.   -and he pointed to his cap that had embroidery identifying him as a  (navy?) man.   he told me, "once i started wearing this..   so many more people would tell me they were vets and started talking to me.."

and i looked up to heaven and whispered..  got the message.

i mean...  how else can people know?  identify each other in the brotherhood and sisterhood of survivorship..

i don't remember his name, and didn't get his picture...  but something tells me, he'll be at one of those upcoming saturday morning coffee/donut meetings at the veterans hall very soon..

and i know, from my visits..   a warm welcome awaits him.

posted by SHE @ 9:48 PM