So how do I accept what my husband does for a living? Quite easily. He serves his country and does so courageously, next to other respectable men and women. He represents America with the utmost dignity while overseas. The Army is lucky to have him, and so am I. While people sit back and criticize what soldiers do, my husband risks his life over and over again. Let’s be honest: It’s a job that most people don’t want. Many don’t think about it because other people do it.
Other people do it.
Instead of trying to figure out how to accept or justify or understand what my husband does because you don’t believe in war, I’d beg you to know that no one wants war; no one likes war. We’d all love a perfect world, but we do not live in one. Our country is at war; two of them, actually. Soldiers, my husband being one of them, have to deploy. We, as families, have to worry and wait and hope.
I believe that the next time somebody asks me how I accept what my husband does for a living, I will simply tell that person to appreciate my husband’s service and to enjoy his or her freedom while my husband does what his country asks of him.
Read it all from 2009 but still full of meaning today.
The mere fact that she feels somehow obligated to justify what her husband does for a living speaks volumes about America. As I have told such questioners on many occasions, you only have the right to ask such a question because men and women of honor and courage stand ready to do unspeakable things in your name so that you even have such a right. I live in the Deep South where service is mostly still honored. It must be very difficult for people from places like California to maintain their composure when such stupid questions are asked. Our society is truly succeeding in turning a rugged people to the useful and the good. (If you don’t know, that’s from Tennyson, not me).