The War is Over.

After 8-years, a war I was only vaguely aware I had been fighting, drew to a close. With it, a source of energy that both powered and inhibited whole parts of my consciousness faded into submission, leaving me spent and mostly unsure of where to go next.

I didn’t fight for my country, but I have always identified with the troops. I have always easily been able to close my eyes and imagine the unimaginable.  The nagging fear, the sheer terror, the sapping fatigue, the moments of joy, the unbreakable bonds of friendship and — always — the debilitating longing for home.

Today brings a New Beginning — a state of both relief and responsibility.  A state of knowing full well that the misery I endured was in the end, one of my own creation.  I allowed it to happen. I knew the fragility of my precious democracy and did not act.  In victory, I have found as much pain as I have pleasure. And Never again will I spectate. Never again can we leave my fortune to chance.

Never again will I assume that everything turn out okay all on it’s own.

Today, one war ends and another, happier one begins.  We can all get on with life once again, bringing with us everything we learned in battle.

Yes, the Good Guys won.

Thank you, Barack Obama.

~ by kbenobi on November 6, 2008.