Sailing To Oblivium: June 14, 2017

Nice day yesterday, but not the “feel good” day of the year. First, a flashback of one of the worst experiences of my life (see yesterday’s entry).

Then, the job I hate most at the farm: cleaning the gutters of the shop building. That means ten trips up and down a 12-foot ladder per side. Have I mentioned lately that I’m not young anymore?

Later, I listened to some Senate testimony on the way in to Little Rock. I surely envied the testifier’s ability to get away with “I don’t recall.” Back in my expert witnessing days, the lawyers in Arkansas wouldn’t let you get away with that. Their take was, “if you don’t have a memory, why are they paying you to testify?” Oh well, life goes on.

Next, I made my last meeting as a condo board member on a day someone must have filched all the Paxil and Metamucil from the building. Some of those folks could have straightened out the mess in the Middle East.

Speaking of which, I then escaped across the street to the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. We show documentary films there once a month—films about the military. This one was about Section 60 of Arlington Cemetery, where the fallen of Iraq and Afghanistan are interred. It is known by some as “The saddest acre in America.” One person disagreed and called it “The proudest acre in America.” So far, we are free to choose which we prefer. I guess, in the words of Lyndon Johnson, I could teach it both ways. The film certainly did.

It featured scenes, without commentary, of families and individuals grieving, each in their own way. One family was that Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 in a suicide attack near Baqubah, Iraq. Yes, he’s the one whose honor and memory Donald Trump besmirched and defiled. Later, I recalled a post by someone expressing hope that there is a hell, and it’s just as Dante described it. Oh dear.

What do after such a trying day? Of course, relax with a Four Roses and three cubes and read a bit of "The Path to War" by Michael Neiberg. It documents a unique thesis of how events drew America into World War One, and is a highly recommended read. I kept thinking that no matter the causes of war, the end results are the same, the most tragic of which is the existence of places like Section 60.    

Went to bed with Faulkner ringing in my ears, “The past is never dead. It's not even past.”