Thank You Note for Mr. Paul
Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 10:55 pm
This is just a 'Thank You'.
For 2009 I was a National Guardsman deployed to Iraq in support of combat operations in that theater. I was 22 when I left and turned 23 while there. This was the first time I ever had to undergo such a drastic change in my previously college-centered life.
We deployed to the desert of southern Iraq, a seemingly endless expanse of dry heatstroked brown earth and set up our temporary year-long homes. It wasn't exactly the "cradle of civilization" it used to be. The once water rich region had since been drained by Saddam years before and left only a depressing dreariness in its place.
The one thing I did have to keep me centered though, was Mr. Paul's music. It kept me sane. It kept me 'me'. Songs like "Home", "Angel in Manhatten", and "Snow in Austin", (among others), kept me calm, kept me present, and helped me get to sleep at night after loudspeakers finished warning, "Incoming! Incoming!".
Your music helped me over there, (and I'm sure many others as well), more than you might know. It was no small thing. Hopefully I'll have an opportunity to express this to you Nov 19th in Bethlehem, PA. I look forward to it. Maybe I'll even get to hear a few of the songs that kept me.
So thank you. For bringing me home. Hopefully that isn't too cornball, because I mean it.
For 2009 I was a National Guardsman deployed to Iraq in support of combat operations in that theater. I was 22 when I left and turned 23 while there. This was the first time I ever had to undergo such a drastic change in my previously college-centered life.
We deployed to the desert of southern Iraq, a seemingly endless expanse of dry heatstroked brown earth and set up our temporary year-long homes. It wasn't exactly the "cradle of civilization" it used to be. The once water rich region had since been drained by Saddam years before and left only a depressing dreariness in its place.
The one thing I did have to keep me centered though, was Mr. Paul's music. It kept me sane. It kept me 'me'. Songs like "Home", "Angel in Manhatten", and "Snow in Austin", (among others), kept me calm, kept me present, and helped me get to sleep at night after loudspeakers finished warning, "Incoming! Incoming!".
Your music helped me over there, (and I'm sure many others as well), more than you might know. It was no small thing. Hopefully I'll have an opportunity to express this to you Nov 19th in Bethlehem, PA. I look forward to it. Maybe I'll even get to hear a few of the songs that kept me.
So thank you. For bringing me home. Hopefully that isn't too cornball, because I mean it.