philoctetes

i e-mailed my friend claire a few days ago about the philoctetes project. i like that name so i'll call it that. i haven't heard from her yet. i was very hesitant about connecting with her on this project as i wasn't sure how she would take it.

claire joined the army, i'd say, about seven years ago? possibly longer. she was probably the last person i would ever see joining the army. her and i went to sleep away summer camp together for many years. i got to know her pretty well during activities and meals. she was a sweet girl who loved to be loud. and that was important at camp. she cheered and sang and participated. well, wait, she participated but she complained. a lot. now i love her to death and i would tell her this to her face but, she jut didn't have camp spirit. she didn't want to go to do certain activities or eat certain things or go certain places. she was difficult. i do remember her loving this game we would play called smugglers. it's long and complicated and, really, i never liked the game, but to make a long story short - one team hid cans and the other team stayed up all night looking for these cans. claire could not get enough of this game. looking for the "smugglers" and trying to find the cans. she was all about it. she later told me that joining the army was like one big game of smugglers. i can see that. but in the army you're actually looking for people who might kill you. way different than looking for cans.

anyways, claire ended up hurting herself pretty badly during a round of training and was put on disability. she wasn't allowed to actually go out on a tour. she did meet her husband in the army and they got married and had two kids. he goes on tours every few months to iraq and afghanistan.

so i asked her if she knew anyone on active duty that would help us out. and this is a tricky situation, i feel, because one never knows how someone in the army is going to handle this. i never ever ever want a friend, let alone a friend in the army who has a husband on active duty, to feel like i, or this country, disapproves of them. quite the contrary. i could never ever ever even fathom doing anything that the army does and i have tremendous amounts of respect for every man and woman that serves our country. i may not agree with their purpose, their reasons for being in iraq or afghanistan, but i respect their desire to serve our country and protect our country. i want them to come home and i want them to come home safely. i want them to be compensated appropriately for risking their lives and their well being to protect those of us at home.

i haven't heard from claire yet.