The hard life of a military wife

I found an awesome book out there for new and "old" military wives. It called "The Homefront Club" and it's written by Jacey Eckhart. If you know someone marrying a military man GET THEM THIS BOOK.

It's hard to express just how difficult being a military wife can be. When we marry a military man, we marry the military too. We have to put up with so much CRAP with almost no guidance. The military TRIES to help, but it's run by active duty men who don't know the first thing about being a military wife. And other military wives tend to isolate themselves from anyone who can help. (This I can only explain by saying you move around so much that you don't want to make friends, or you don't know where to start looking for them.)

I was a military brat, Air Force specifically. I was "lucky" because we didn't move around much. And when we WERE moving it was when I was too young to really care. I didn't have to suffer like most did. But I still got a hefty dose of military life. And even though I resented and hated it quite a lot, I'm glad for it now. It helps me struggle through the hard times.

The Homefront Club was a comfort to me. I cried a lot through it. No one ever talks about the lonliness and isolation you feel when your husband is deployed. How certain times during the week or day make you weep uncontrollably. How you recheck all the locks a million times just to make sure you're safe. How you leave lights on, how you try not to think about the empty spot next to you when you sleep. But this lady talks about those things. She's in her 30s and she still does them! What a relief to know I wasn't alone.

Of course I KNEW I wasn't alone. Obviously other women suffer, a lot of them more than I do. But you don't hear about them. They don't talk about it. (I think a lot of them want to forget about it when it's over.) So you struggle through it, and hope next time it won't hurt too much. But it always hurts.

That's something they never talk about. I wish I'd known to ask my Mom. But I didn't know. And even when I talked to her about it, I don't recall her saying much that helped. (Could she have said anything to help? I don't know. Maybe I wouldn't have been ready.)

You know what really bugs me about this upcoming deployment? Of all the rediculous things to be bothered by, I'm bothered by the fact that the Radio station in S. Dakota won't be here. During Mike's last deployment that radio station was like a bandaid for my pain of lonliness. I had it on almost all the time. It was like a friend and kept me sane during the evenings (I feel the worst during the evening). It was also Christian, and I could almost feel the love of the community through them, since they were always talking about supporting military families. I loved it.

What do we have here? One AFN radio station. They play everything from oldies, country, to rap. No Christian music. And while I like Japanese music, it's not gonna cut it as a safety net for when Mike is gone. And besides, the commercials and radio DJs (for AFN) are kinda annoying.

Anyway.. if you're a military wife of 1, 5, or more than 10 years, please by The Homefront Club. If you know someone who's a military wife buy them this as a birthday gift or something. They'll appreciate it, I promise. :)

The Pope's Insult

I just found out about the Pope making some statement that really ticked off some Muslims. (I know I'm behind! It's hard to keep up with the news here.) Something about the religion starting in violence I think? I'm hazy on the details. Supposedly the Pope was taken out of context. I dunno, I'm not Catholic so I don't care if he did or not.

Anyway, I found the Islamic response to his comment(s) pretty funny. What they should have done was peacefully objected to his comment(s) through letters and petitions and stuff. What they did end up doing--and what's being showed all over the world--is the exact OPPOSITE of that. Burning images and mock-dolls of the pope, saying means things about him. They're pretty much shooting themselves in the foot.

Now of course not all are doing that. The ones trying to live in peace with some understanding of how the world works are calling for peaceful protests. For sanity. But the very fact that they HAVE to ask their brethren to be peaceful, to act rationally, proves that they aren't going to do either. And they haven't.

I think I should clarify my position on Muslims and the Islamic religion. I think it's wrong. I think it's founder was a violent man, and therefore, the religion can easily lead to violence. However, I don't believe that's the CAUSE for violence in the Middle-east. No, the religion is not the cause of it.

I think the CAUSE of the violence is similiar to what happened with Christianity during the middle ages. Leaders (religious or government) were evil and greedy. They kept their people ignorant and poor. Then they used the religion at hand to manipulate their people into subserviance and violence. Ignorance and cruelty are the greatest breeding grounds for violence.

Even the leaders of [Muslim] terrorists groups are doing the same thing. The greatest (and worst) terrorist leaders in those groups didn't believe in the Muslim God, much less any god at all. They just wanted power. The easiest way for them to build up an army without tons of money and benefits was to talk people into believing they were serving God.

Hopefully those of a more open mind can appreciate the distinction I'm making here. Disagreeing with a religion does not make me intolerant, nor does it mean I hate all the believers in that particular religion. I simply disagree with it.

Recently, I read a story about a group of young people who were dressed up in the traditional Islamic head gear for women. (They were women, but not all Muslims.) They entered a resturant where the owner scowled at them. Then he changed their waitress when the first was being too nice. He also refused to let them eat anything but the sandwiches.

Of course it was his business. He has the right to refuse service (even give subpar service) to any one he wants. I would not take that "freedom" away from him.

However, that behavior is appauling. The last time I looked at the calender it was 2006, not 1906. There's no excuse for such ignorance and stupidity. People like that need a swift kick in the ass.

*leaves and comes back*

Well, I had to leave for a while. I lost my train of thought. Very unfortunate. But that was pretty much all I had to say anyway. Toodles!