Monday, May 25, 2009

A Deployed Husband and a Military Wife Communicate

Last week I posted a link to a Pentagon public affairs piece on the Her War blog by Melissa Seligman. My brief visit there gave me an impression of a smart, expressive person, and that impression is confirmed by this piece of hers carried in today's New York Times. MP+

One Husband, Two Kids, Three Deployments
By MELISSA SELIGMAN
Published: May 24, 2009
Fort Riley, Kan.

FIVE years ago, my new husband, David, swallowed his tears as he tried to find a way to say goodbye. He held our baby girl to his nose, inhaled her newborn scent and searched my eyes for understanding. “You know I have to go, right?” he asked. I nodded, trying to understand his leaving, his sense of duty. I imagined that I did as I watched him walk out our kitchen door toward a war in Afghanistan, but I didn’t.

We talked — sometimes twice a day — ignoring the popping and snapping on the line and the long delays between our voices on the Webcam. And I fooled myself into believing a two-dimensional image could transmit and sustain a three-dimensional marriage. After all, I could see his eyes, hear his laughter. But he knew nothing of what I thought about our marriage, nothing of my postpartum depression and nothing of my anger at feeling lonely in a life that he chose.

Read the whole piece

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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Mad Padre

Mad Padre
Opinions expressed within are in no way the responsibility of anyone's employers or facilitating agencies and should by rights be taken as nothing more than one person's notional musings, attempted witticisms, and prayerful posturings.

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