Write a letter to a solider, or a veteran, in honor of Trish Doller's debut, Something Like Normal, about Travis, a warrior who returns home after fighting in the middle east.
This is The Mod Podge Bookshelf's open letter to the American Solider Who Walks On.
Thank you.
Those words seem so small for the enormity of your mission.
You should be honored with a word as wide and as weighty as supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, and I know, that hardly harks of reverence, but really, I wouldn’t mind making you laugh.
I doubt there’s much to laugh at in the middle of a war, or on a modern battlefield, a place that can look like terrain one moment and utter carnage the next.
Physical combat has changed so much in the last hundred years or so. Opposing forces no longer meet on a battlefield and fight to the death, with the only advantage one soldier has over another being the quality of their steel. Now the enemy has no eyes, and you do not meet them in battle, you simply stumble across a trap that becomes a personal siege.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious for being so willing to tread where others fear to fall, for marching on, knowing any small step, or giant leap, may be your last. You walk on because every step gets you closer to 'mission accomplished,' and somehow you find enough worth in that to keep going, because for you, 'mission accomplished' comes without a theme song, or a movie deal, it comes with a plane ticket home, such a small, resounding victory.
You astound me, you astonish me, you mean the world to me, you and your feet, that never fall or falter. Even if you do not return, even if your footprints fade in the sand you tread on, they cast a mold for America to walk in, in your honor, and in your name.
The name of an American Solider who walks on and fearlessly.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,
Gabrielle Carolina
I come from a long line of military veteran's and it was my honor to write this.
1 comment:
This is a beautiful letter!
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