this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war – today, for healers
we love and support our troops, just as we love and support the Iraqi people – without exception, or precondition, or judgment.
image and poem below the fold
A U.S. military worker holds the hand of a wounded U.S. soldier inside a U.S. military hospital at the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad October 30, 2006.
REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani (IRAQ)
Design
by Robert Frost
I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth–
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches’ broth–
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.
What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?–
If design govern in a thing so small.
– – –
a personal note: two of my colleagues have been activated and deployed – one to a front line hospital in Iraq, the other to the Army medical center in Landstuhl, Germany where the most badly wounded are sent before moving on to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. My colleague in Iraq recently sent the following email:
Hello everyone, I’ve spent the last 4 months training at FT xxx in xxx and then had a brief week off to visit with family in xxx, I stopped by and saw a few people that were working but had to run. I then flew into Kuwait where I spent another week getting acclimated. I’m finally here in Iraq and it’s is worst than I could ever imagine. Our living conditions are almost unbearable. I had a day to gather my self and pick up my jaw off the floor then get right to work. There are some pretty horrific stuff going on over here! Anyways for those that would like to write here’s my email address: xxx@xxx.com, Take care.
– – –