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I am thankful for my hero. My son, aka Badass MOFO. A man who chose a profession which took
him halfway around the world to protect others, knowing the potential harm to
him. This is the second year in a row we will not be celebrating the holidays
with him with us. Yet, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This morning I ran a 5K. The worst one I have run all year.
My time was super slow. I have had a nasty cold the last couple of weeks. You
know the one…achy muscles, stuffed nose, coughing from deep within, and an
overall feeling a fatigue. As if the cold wasn't enough, somewhere around mile two something
happened to my hamstring. It was about then that Sean first crept into my head.
Unbeknownst to him, he kept me running.
At the finish of the race, I made a beeline for massage table. Talk
about pain! I did. I talked about it while dancing the Macarena with Sana and
Patti. I talked about it when Tony told me about my time (horrible!). I talked
about it during the award ceremony. And then the lady stopped the award
ceremony in the middle of announcing a winner…
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Wounded Warrior, a double
amputee, at the Gobblers’ Run today. He is just about ready to come down the
hill. Please turn around and give him some applause.”
Sean walked with me in spirit as I did more than just turn
around. We walked toward the hill together. Tears filled my eyes as so many
realizations cascaded down on me. He was one of the last to finish the race,
yet he walked across the finish tall and proud on his own two legs. Any pain I
was feeling was forgotten. It took the humbleness of a hero reminding me what was
important.
We hear about our military men and women coming back from
war broken physically and mentally. We hear about IEDs, gunfire, and suicide
bombers. Yet, there is so much more to these men and women than we realize. For
war is not all about violence. It can also be about doing good for others.
Yesterday, I had a chance to chat on facebook with Sean for
quite some time. After we finished with the “How’s everybody doing?” part of
the conversation, I asked him what he did when he wasn’t working. As with many
of us, it depends on the day. That particular day, he changed the tires on the
Gator they drive up and down the mountain each day. On his upcoming to-do list are
things such as put a winter door on the interpreter’s room “since it’s getting
cold here” and put an antennae on the top of a tower. The other day, he met a
Sergeant from the Afghan National Army. After the Sergeant found out what Sean
does for a job, he asked if Sean would teach him and some of his men how to use
their IED detection tools more effectively. Sean is working on making that
happen in his time off. In Sean’s words, “I try to stay positively busy. I
figure I am here to do good.”
Good is happening all around us. Even in the midst of the
war, whether it be fought with bullets or metaphorically within us, when we
realize we are here to do good, we begin to end the war. Today, I am thankful
for being “positively busy” even as the war rages and the man who embodies it.
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