Fortunately, I already did a post that explains it all.. that I posted the first time I posted all these pictures of me involving military history… so… here it is…
It was called; Don’t worry about it…
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By now you may well have found yourself to be full of vague misgivings concerning my mental health. I am not talking about your understandable concerns for my basic sanity… (at least not yet)… I am more just wondering if you are starting to worry that I may have an unhealthy preoccupation with violence and warfare.
Believe me, I am no more obsessed with bloodshed than any other 13-year-old boy growing up in America today… (The fact that I am a 50-something-year-old boy need not trouble us for the moment)…
I am not, by nature or inclination, a violent person…
Aw, look, there I am as a 13-year-old altar boy at our Episcopal church… (Don’t worry, the Episcopal Church is basically Church of England, like Catholic-lite, only without the touchy-feely priests!!!)
I hardly ever go to bars in bad parts of every town I visit, and get into fistfights… anymore!!!
The thing is, I am fascinated by history. I read about it and study it and watch shows about it constantly. If I had done all this studying in college classrooms, I would have at least a PhD by now, but I didn’t, so there is no use crying over spilled blood… uh, I mean milk. In fact, I am working on a weird war facts book that will be huge, if I ever finish it…
I love history in general, but I find, intellectually, that military history is by far the most fascinating. There are moments of heroic, selfless sacrifice offset by treachery and the natural desire to stay alive even at the expense of others. War is a cauldron that boils down and condenses human behavior. In war, we see the best and the worst of humanity, often simultaneously.
War also seems to focus the human mind. Nothing like fighting for national and personal survival to keep people on task. Many if not most of our greatest medical and technological advances have occurred during wars. At the very least, doctors get a hell of a lot more practice and experience in a much shorter time.
I would even go so far as to say that most of the big changes to the human condition have been brought about by violence, either on a large-scale or a small, personal one. It could be a global conflict that changes the lives of most people on the planet, or one political assassination that sets a country or an empire on a new course. Revolution seldom happens without some accompanying violence. I am not advocating violence, merely pointing out that the world has been shaped and molded by it… Just something to think about…
America exists as it is because we fought a war to have it for our own and many others to keep it and keep it safe. Oh, and we fought a big one right here at home to keep it whole. We are who we are because of what the people who came before us did…
Even if you have no interest in history, you are a product of it…
Pouring My Art Out 
Hi Art – all joking aside, it was nice to read this perspective of yours, and see those lovely pictures of you as a kid and with your family. 🙂
You can see all kinds of pictures of my family… and me as a baby and a little kid… way back in the first few months of the blog… plus posts all about my daughters… before my wife told me to knock it off.
Now Here’s an example of a reaaaally long title, the title for this post: 76 words.
But you make up for it given the post was really good.
I found out that even though, on the topic page wall things WordPress cuts off our posts after so many words, they always show the whole title, so I invented the ‘put the main idea in the title’ idea.
In other words, cheating. Cheating words.
We call it a loophole
A loophole I’ve seen before to get search engine recognition, with hashtags, etc. See recent global posts in dashboard…
I may not have invented it, but I took it in new directions… that is what I do with stuff.
First photo: cute, suspect, and potentially pervy
Second photo: cuteness receding, suspicion in full swing, perviness established
Third photo: war flashback, administer LIthium and Oreos, stat!
the second one is me, my daughter and my brother… so… not too pervy…
I know what evil lurks in the hearts of men. You’re just dripping with potential.
where are we going with this exactly?
War seems to be best when viewed from a distance.
exactly
So when are you going to let us provide a title for the altar boy picture?
I just make ’em, I don’t name ’em.
I like history too. 🙂
Does Canada have history???
Pft
ha
Of course it does. We even tried to invade them once.
That would give them something to talk about… should we do it again? We can do it from behind this time… you know how much they like that.
I find your interest in military history much less frightening than all those pictures.
That’s what I think too
You made a cute alter boy!
Leslie
awwww… shucks