I thought I'd try a kind of personal post tonight because I found this picture today of me and some friends from 1987 posed in the backyard at my parents house. This photo opt interrupted a game of War we were engaged in for my twelfth birthday. I am sure this birthday warfare also included some ice cream and cake.
This picture makes me laugh so much because looking at it now I'm reminded how little I was once, but that I have apparently always been impervious to cold as I'm the only one without a sweatshirt or jacket. Also I can't fathom sometimes how much I enjoyed just running around with toy guns and wearing camouflage when I was a kid. There's nothing glorious about war, and I'd learn that soon enough, for not long after this picture was taken our family really started to learn the impact the experiences of the Vietnam war had on my father. It's also weird to think that within months after this picture I would begin the descent into my "I wear black on the outside" phase and music would be more important in my life than anything else for a time. This picture was taken in March of 1987, and Junior High was on the horizon and a new battle in my life was to begin then in the fall: the battle to be accepted. Lets' just say I didn't do so good... but it all worked out in the end. Hence the eccentric adult before you now!
The line up left to right: Jason Partner, Shawn Kitzmiller, Yours Truly, and Mike Adams.
And since I rarely post without a music video...
I found an independently made video on Youtube by video poster,Leadingnorth, with footage of WWI set to the tune of Belle & Sebastian's song "I Fought in a War". It's an interesting piece of historical footage which "starts with the funeral of Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian then moves on Bizmark, the Kaizer, French troops taking taxis to the front & other mixed footage". Kudos Leadingnorth for this anti-war video!
Just as an after thought here, I am seriously thankful that I grew up in a part of the world where as a child I could "play" war, and not be caught in a war all around me. No child should witness the horrors of men or be made the victims of the conflicts of men. I think sometimes that if I am ever a parent I may not want my kids playing war while so many other children around the world have no choice but to engage themselves in it simply to survive.
