Blindly Optimistic
I went to the movies with my mom this weekend…she was dying to see The Other Boleyn Girl. I loved it the first time so I was happy to see it again. The difference this time, I actually made in time to see the previews. The last preview before the start of the movie was for the upcoming movie, Stop Loss, starring Ryan Phillippe and Channing Tatum. A group of soldiers come back home from fighting in Iraq, only to be shipped right back out. “You’ve been Stop Lossed,” is what the guy tells them. That means, “Thanks for almost dying and fighting your ass off, glad you’re home, but now you get to go right back to the sand becasue we’re out of men to do it for you.” Now, I’ve see this preview several times before and usually think of how nice it would be to watch another movie where Channing Tatum would hopefully, at some point in the movie, walk around without a shirt. But this time was different. I could think of nothing else than one of my closest friends sitting in the sandbox from hell. As tears started rolling down my face, all I could do was think about him and the huge prayer list from my church of people serving overseas right now…fighting a war that should not have been fought at all. Too many lives have been taken to prove some kind of point. What that point is, I don’t know.
What I do know is that change must come soon…maybe it will come in the form of a new president, maybe I’m being a little too optimistic about changes that are being proimised by the people with the mics and their names on posters. I won’t get into my feelings on current politics, another time, another place. I want my friend to come home. I want everyone to be reunited with their loved ones fighting for someone else. I’m proud of him and the fact that he’s stepping up and trying to help clean up someone else’s mess. Good for him. Call me selfish but I just want them all home and safe.
