"One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." -The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Sunday, September 11, 2011

My Dad and Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, and 9/11

Before my father passed away, I spent the last few weeks of his life with him at first in the hospital and then in a care center. He knew he was dying, he wanted to talk.
When I was a child, he had the habit of crossing his arms in a gesture of slicing the air and would say, "Alright, enough."  He did not want to hear what I or others might want to say.
So that is what I did, almost my whole life. I kept whatever I wanted to say, to myself. Sometime after that, his passing, I mean, the dam broke and out comes all of this stuff.
First of all, I need to tell you that my dad was an amazing man. He ended being an engineer and designed things like the tiles on the Space Shuttle. This in itself is amazing, especially when you consider what happened as a result of the tiles. Especially when you consider the background that he had. Which is a very long story.
My dad was just outside the harbor at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed and his ship did survive, but, he spent five years on board ships fighting the Japanese in the Pacific Front. He was a captain of a large large gun group. He never thought he would make it out of the war. In a way he left a lot of himself there.
He was ordered into Hiroshima after we dropped the bomb to help clean-up. He spent a lot of time telling me all about that when he was dying. No one should have to see what he saw. Not ever again.
9/ll is today's 10th anniversary and of course that is on my mind. This is one thing that has changed the life we all live in the entire globe. This is what no one should have to see, not ever again.
This morning I moved furniture and cleaned and then worked on the thread painting. I guess this feeling of sadness is not going to go anywhere. I can not escape.
I am reading Isabel Allende, again. That works, a bit.
My mom is very sick with a chest infection and I am worried about her. I have it as well, but I am not as old as she.
Today the sun is out shining it's big bald head, the sky is that perfect blue, white white clouds are floating by every now and then. Much like that same September day ten years ago.
I say a prayer into the universe that all creatures great and small will feel blessed on this day for many good reasons.
I will spend the afternoon cutting up a story into strips to photograph for my sketchbook project.
I hope you have a blessed day.

xoxoxo


1 comment:

Shirley said...

Bobbie, I love this...I miss Dad so much!

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