Finding peace, purpose in the backyard

Yesterday, November 11, was Veterans Day, saluting all who have served in the United States Armed Forces; well done, especially combat veterans like me. Drafted right out of college, ordered to Vietnam, I would not have volunteered for either. But, once in, I was a great soldier. Elected to attend AIT, Class Leader, full combat year in Vietnam from July 1969 to July 1970, should have been dead dozens of times, from nothing to E6 in just two years. As for many columns, I considered editing those other Vietnam posts for today, but….just way too stressful to stir up all those nightmares, PTSD, and instead chose to write this calming column contributing to life, not taking it away…. August 2000 – after living in stressful dumb-ass stereo-thumping thin-walled apartments since arriving in Oxford in 1988, other than those well-managed Grey Apartments on Sisk (now torn down) by dear friend, Kin Kinney, I moved into my new house in the South Oaks subdivision on South Lamar that I had built.

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