Freedom

I spent a lot of money getting my hair cut and professionally colored.  When my friend, Mary Louise, saw me she said, with a look of sympathy on her face: "You deserve it."  I thought, "Huh, why?"  It then occurred to me that she thought I was making some kind of sacrifice because Joe is gone, deployed to Iraq for a year.  Therefore, I "deserved" the luxury of getting my hair done.  For sure, I miss Joe a lot.  I mean, here I am, at home on  a Saturday night.  I have the joy of listening  to Leo play board games with his friends in the next room; Larry and his friends pop in occasionally from their game of manhunt.  But, I'm sitting in here alone.  Not exactly bored or even lonely.  Just something missing.  An emptiness.  No commisserater to discuss politics with; no snuggling on the couch. Yeah,  it's a sacrifice.  But I can't help think of the wives of the active duty soldiers.  The young twenty-somethings with small children whose husbands are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.  Their husbands won't come home for leave every three months.  The money isn't great.  They're probably broke.  Their husbands aren't in an embassy, they're in "camps", maybe even on the front lines.  Besides, we are in a war on terrorism, admit it or not.  Shouldn't we all be making sacrifices?   Recently there's been a lot of activity across the creek.  Helicopters, explosions, all kinds of booms and bangs.  When I saw a fellow ex-military  spouse and neighbor in the commissary, she called it the "sound of freedom."  After all, freedom isn't free.  It has a price.  And the one I'm paying is small compared to the sacrifices many others have made.

Thank you, Joe, for being dedicated to our country and our ideals of liberty and freedom.  You are a hero and I love you so very much.