The Forgotten Soldier, Slave, and their Loves

 The Forgotten Soldier, Slave, and their Loves

Millions have come and gone. Throughout our seemingly endless annals of human history, we can scarcely be able to mention on four or eight  pages of lists the times and places of their existence. China, India, Africa, Europe, the Americas. Oceania. Siberia, East Asia, Southeast Asia.

There have been millions of slaves in our known history. Most had loves, or lovers, or unrequited passions. They were people, classified as chattel, but human nonetheless. They count.

There are slaves in 2026. In at least 15-20 nations. Plus, all the addicts enslaved by their vices. Some are worth millions of dollars. Slaves to their physical or mental manias.

We all have loves and lovers, passions or obsessions. 

We all follow similar patterns.

Are we any better than anyone else?

Certainly some come from worse intentions.

But most of us are the same.

We work, we love, we suffer, we die.

We hope for things to come.

Did we love who we needed to?

Did they love and suffer more? Those that we pined and cared for? Those at home, living alone and behind the troop or servant?

Who is your lost soldier?

He is praying for you as you read this.

Fort Polk, June 26, 2026. 

 Cleaning Out the Cave

    It happened. It requires determination and grit. And time. A plan. My wife put them all together. And it happened. She saw the need, and did all that she needed to do to get in their and clean it out.

    She knew she wanted--needed-- to throw some of the old belongings out. Move on. And, perhaps most importantly, I needed it too, as did the children and all the members of the house. All of us needed to purge the potential toxic and dirty leftovers of the vermin that invaded the cave. Mice, or rats, had invaded our additional space in the basement.

    The Cave. A Place and a Metaphor.

    What is the cave? For us in our home, our single residence house,

Started April 26, 2026.

Sending it.

Maybe finish later.

    

 Guardians in Our History

    The last ten years has seen an upsurge in guardians in the United States. Who started it? I would say the Marvel movies, with the Guardians of the Galaxy, like Rocket Rackoon, Starlord (Chris Pratt), and Groot et al. They were cool, funny, fun to root for. To groot for.

    They came along as Guardians, then…

Not published a month or more ago.

AI Gemini has me actively blogging from 2014 to 2022. At least that!

But I have posted hundreds of things since 2022.

Dumb intelligence?

So called.

World Cup Hopes and Dreams

 World Cup Hopes and Dreams

The big one is upon us!

The traditional powers are at play: Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Brazil, Argentina.

I want none of them. Of course the U.S.A at home would be amazing. Possible, but wow. I would love to see a lesser tiered team and nation like Mexico win. ¡Sí! ¡Viva Méjico! Any other Latin American side would be fine with me. But not likely.

How about Netherlands? Or England? Or Portugal?

O, Canada?

Let us take down those bullies!

Go underdogs!

Take down the powers, for once.

Viva.

Peace and The Military

 Peace and The Military

Most of us Americans, U.S. citizens, believe that a large part of the reason why we as a country and people are free and strong is because we wield power to back it up. Freedom, commerce, tourism, travel, all greatly enabled and assured by our strength in ships in the air and sea, and outer space, to include communication technology, ground troops ready to deploy and fight at a moment’s notice, and even commit long term. (See Germany, South Korea, Kuwait.)

We have great and dynamic technology, industry, food production, means and business of robust transportation. It would not be so if we could not defend ourselves and protect others. Might makes right, we might quote Machiavelli. 

War and military actions and readiness ensure peace and the consequent prosperity. We learn this certainly through the Holy Bible and Book of Mormon. The Quran? Other holy writings of other cultures and belief systems? War and prosperity comes in cycles.

We live cyclically in times of peace followed by war. Hopefully more of the former and less of the latter. Perpetual war would only lead to complete ruin. We need peace. We need strength, stability.

There are always wolves and packs of jackals, even hordes, that would tear us apart and devour us.

A careful, cautious, vigilant pastor or watchman needs to protect his keep. The sheep, the lambs. Police and sailors, firefighters, doctors, nurses, marines and soldiers are first responders for many reasons.

We need them for peace, civility, and growth.

God bless us all.

War and Peace -2026

 War and Peace -2026

Mrs. Albright told me to stop reading it in 1982, I think. Maybe 1983. I was enjoying it, understanding it. I stopped. My parents broke up. Motivations and self-perceptions altered.

Whoosh. Time warp.

1990s. Did I try again in my 20s? Maybe not. Two bachelors and other reads.

2000s. Did I try to read it again in the 21st century, me married with children coming?

2010s: yes, I tried a couple times, I know. Same version, same abridgment, likely.

Now 2020s. I advanced lately, and now in June would be the fell swoop.

I did it! Yes. Da, harasho. On to the Russian, SME, perhaps fitting.

This one down, characters have infiltrated my conscious and sub-conscious.

Pierre, Natasha, Andrew, Denisov wid da wisp. Petya, Mary, et al.

Pravda.

More later.

Every Thing  We Say, Do, Write - Creates and Re-Creates

    Yuval Hariri knows Israeli and Jewish history. He is a modern, well-informed, scholar of human history and thought. He writes of the Jewish state, modern Israel, and re-shapes it in his and many minds into what it has been, what it is, and what it will be.

    2026 is a pivitol year for the state of Israel. The great United States has joined them in pummeling the long term existential menace in Iran. Empires collide, if you will. And we the consumer and common citizen pay higher prices in fuel, food, and everything else increases. 

    Our world hemorraghes a bit with the boats and ships stuck and struck in the Straits of Hormuz, when we aggressively choose to eliminate nuclear power and potential weaponry of mass destruction, we clog up the fossil fuel, which translates to consuming more food and biological materials, to help combine for bio-fuels when the fossil fuels run dry. As it has worldwide for months.

    Who do we worship? What do we cherish? What values do we seek after, and what do we spend out time doing? Who, if any, is a higher power or ideal. Are there truths worth defending, fighting, and dying for?

    Greed? Do we hurt others and even kill off other folks or the environment, for our own immediate gains and profits?

    What story will we write? It begins today, and carries on into tomorrow. Can we live those decisons years from now?