Brothers-In-Arms With Unseen Injuries

I try to make clear that as agonizing as MY neural-damage is...that many young men and women returning from war will have unseen scars that are VERY REAL and equally invisible, so because I am a young man with mere brain-damage and must walk with a cane, I constantly remind people that INVISIBLE brain and nerve damage is the tip of the iceberg for these brave folks.

I don't pretend to understand how horrible war is, but I know enough about how insensitive people are to ME to anticipate that returning soldiers will need understanding beyond what the majority are prepared to offer.

Without actual experience a person CAN'T understand, so there's no need to feel bad about TRYING to empathize, and failing. These people will need PATIENCE more than anything.

Patience to accept behaviors that are so far from the Latte-fueled world of the people at home who think just merely "earning a living" is hard.

War is hard. Even utter destitution pales by comparison, I suspect.

I don't pretend to know HOW hard war is...but I predict that even the worst day for the homeless and disabled in this country is a cake-walk by comparison.

Anyway...I'm only trying to say that we're ALL going to have to learn to stop thinking of ourselves as the centers of our own personal universes in order to even BEGIN to understand the sacrifices these people have made...sure, some soldiers will have escaped any real exposure to the really difficult parts of war, but those who have borne the REAL horrors first-hand will not be the same people we remember...and out of love we must be willing to accept what they have become, no matter how much patience it requires.

The future of this country depends on it.

--mattergy