This is not the first time I’ve made a post to this webspace on Veterans Day, having done so here and here previously. As in previous years, I am somewhat…tense…concerning what I would write here, being myself not a veteran and not apt to become one at this point in my life. (If I am needed to fight, being currently aged 42 and with sciatica, never in my life having been able to do a pull-up, the war is long lost already.) I know that the standard line is “Say ‘thank you for your service’ and then shut the fuck up,” and perhaps that is the most fitting thing for me to do–but those who know me know that “shut the fuck up” isn’t really something I have it in me to do often or long. (It’s not a good thing, usually. I suppose we all have our vices.)

(Yes, I know I’m using naughty words. If you have pearls of your own, clutch away, but do kindly keep your hands off of mine.)

Some of the veterans I have known–and I know and have known more than a few, some quite well–have made much of being thanked for their service. Some have made as much about not thanking them for it, saying such things as “it was just a job” or “you don’t know what I did, so you might not want to thank me.” And it’s true; I don’t know. I know there are things that should not be said (under threat of punitive action or because they are even more impolite to discuss than the naughty words I use above). I know, too, that there are things that cannot be said, things to which words do not suffice. Which of them apply, and to what extent, is unclear to me.

Most often, the standard line is delivered in tones of snarling contempt. I’ve heard it enough, both in person and in recordings included in reporting, to know that much well. (It might be imagined easily that I’ve been told it a lot.) Like most, I bristle at it–understandably, if not perhaps always rightly. But if there are good reasons to shut up, a lack of knowledge is certainly one, and the recognition of words’ inadequacy is another. And though I am a person of words–sometimes, far too many or far too coarse–

Remember, I’m happy to write to order; fill out the form below to get yours started!

Or you can send your support along directly!