10.6.2010

Raunt

Using the word 'troops' while reporting. I don't get it. I wake up to the news often and the reporters are always talking about 'troops' dying. Then they go on to say that 6 troops died in a roadside attack. When I think of troops, I think of multitudes. Like an army. Fairly vague, lotta peeps, lotta uniforms, no real faces. But apparently *they* (you know, the big, invisible *they*) must think that we can't hear war personalized down to an individual and their name, thus they do not say the truth like "6 soldiers, Joe Smith from Ham Lake, Jack Smith, Bob Smith, Bill Smith from St. Paul, and Charlie Smith, Derrick Smith from Minneapolis died." It's harder to hear that personalized truth, but it is the truth. And truth about war is ugly. In my opinion, soldiers and the civilians who die deserve to be named. And we deserve the hurt while hearing those names since we're the ones who put them in harms way in the first place with our decision to go to war. It's ugly. You can't hide from the truth.

Rave

Geraniums. Geraniums were, I think, one of my mom's favorite flowers. She liked to paint them, I know that. I have a few around my house, and I'm in awe at their tenacity to just keep growing. Sun-in, sun-out. Hot-in, cold-out. They just keep growing. Those little cluster of petals create lacelike shadows in my dining room, too. Pretty, colorful, lacey. What a flower to rave about! Love geraniums!