Of course I am not taking any credit (or blame) for this and there is nothing about it I mean that I have anything to do with or anything . . .but I found out today that the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise's keel was begun to be laid on my fifth birthday.
I saw her in port in Norfolk . . . Newport News . . . Hampton Roads, as she was about to leave for her last cruise in her current incarnation last March, and have some loved ones connected with her -- real as well as imaginary like Spock and Kirk and Uhuru and the rest . . . my son-in-law, my friend I mentioned the other day, a young man I have known since he was three or so . . .(some are with us to touch, with skin on . . . and some only but very powerfully in Spirit). And the death and destruction as well as the relief and rescue and redemption and reconciliation and victory . . . and defeat that has been berthed from her innards and flashed and lifted off from her decks . . . and the host of witnesses gathered throughout her . . . it all brought a lot of thoughts and memories to my mind and heart.
I saw the info about her history and decommissioning in "The Navy Times" as I waited to be seen at the VA Med Clinic in Sarasota. The sleeping pill, as you have noticed . . . most likely . . . has been doing the opposite, so I went to get some help there.
And these are the images drawn to my attention, not necessarily at all related to the "Enterprise," but just to my life, and Decembers and the kind of stream of consciousness mode I seem to be in at the moment.
Coming out of a hangar in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to find myself in a sea of big white and black birds . . .
Watching bright orange circles of flames turn to white hot circles of planes when it was 20 below zero and the circles of flames propelled guys in jets from a full stand still to flashes of light and sound and power in less than a blink of the eye . . .
Sitting in a grotto by a statue of Our Lady missing my kids on Christmas Eve with only a three miles to go dry in any direction or a little over seven miles round trip, avoiding the wreckage of planes from over forty years earlier . . .
Flowing out of a chapel with candles while a whole lot of people were partying and the shimmering bright white coral beads glimmered on the beaches and in the atoll . . .
Being amazed at how fast Navy guys could get together a coffee service after having been piped aboard a Destroyer because a kid was injured and needed to be airlifted back to Pearl . . .
Catching a falling star in mid-day . . . not HIS star . . . and too close and too impersonal. . .
Seeing the sign over the bar change to a higher number . . . posted above it was "Let My People Go!" and we did eventually . . .
Wondering why no Navy guys knew how to change a sailboat's direction without dumping it (and me) into the drink . . .
Playing racketball in the middle of the ocean, too . . .
Looking for the Golden Goonie and for fishballs . . .
I kept telling people it was 21 years ago but tonight I realized it was THIRTY-ONE years ago. WOW -- time warp. Beam me home, Scotty . . .
Fa la la la la la la la laaaaaaah
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Kathleen Ware Harris © 2013
kwharris777@gmail.com
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