The soldier can't remember what he had to eat that night, and he remembers little about the others who joined him. But he will never forget the stranger's act of kindness, which gave some World War II servicemen a warm welcome home and endured to help a veteran stand tall in his daughter's eyes.
We climb a mountain because it's there. But sometimes in the process we lose sight of the grass beneath our feet.
Published in 1961, the book details the insanities surrounding an Army Air Corps bombardier stationed off the coast of Italy in World War II. The novel by Joseph Heller is fictitious but speaks volumes about contradictions in our society then and now. But you probably already knew that, having not had trendy '70s mini courses in your school curriculum. That my father also flew on bombing missions in Italy for two years during World War II makes the book to me altogether more personally vital because my father rarely speaks of those days.
Sometimes a universal truth is crystallized in a moment.
Before the ENIAC computer was programmed by these women during World War II, the task of calculating ballistics trajectories was accomplished by hand by a group of 80 female mathematicians.
Taking in the view, not just of the river, time stands still. The vignette will take me through the weeks or even months ahead until I can visit my retreat again. It will remind me of the things that are important: These people, this day, this place.
