Fear and Peace

The society that motivates itself through fear will always overrun that which has found peace, but the peaceful society will endure forever.

Sophomore

Age might temper the perception of the truth at the same time that it convinces a particularly stalwart ego that it might be 'wise'. Wisdom is gray.

A Letter from My Grandmother

From Jacqueline Underwood
April 10, 2008

Dear Katie and Matt,

I was reading the past cards again and it brought back many memories. I can clearly remember the evacuation from Dunkirk. America had not yet entered the war although we were shipping supplies to Great Britain. I was just graduating from high school but a group of our friends were in the National Guard and were being sent to Fort Lewis, Washington. There were about sixteen guys in uniform; we (the high school students) all assembled at the train station in Colton, (CA). The Yellowjacket band in bright red and gold uniforms also played patriotic music and of course we girls cried. After all, they were going far away. Far away is so much closer today. Then in Dec. '41 the U.S. became an active ally of England. Most of the guys were 16 or 17 as was Grandpa. He was born in 1926 but the story goes that Grandma Ruth (your great-grandmother) said she'd say he was born in 1925 if he would join the Coast Guard instead of the Marines. She thought he would be on duty around the coast of the U.S. As you know he had one of the most dangerous sea duty assignments possible. He was assigned to a destroyer escort ship. Their job was to protect the merchant ships carrying supplies to England from Nazi submarines in the North Atlantic.

I worked as a time clerk for the Quartermaster Corps. We were responsible for shipping supplies to the harbor in Long Beach, CA, where they'd be sent to allies all over the world.

Long time ago, were we ever so young? No more memory provoking cards unless you can stand the rambling.

Hey, so glad you are having the good life. We get to read the news to your folks too. May God keep and bless you, Love always,

Gramma and Grampa U.

Musings over Montepulciano de Abruzzo

The fountain of glory bleeds red
A rose is but a flower
Flesh and stone strewn about velvet paverment
To die is to live again

A virgin calls tenderly
Bent to obfuscation, she cries dry tears
Why live to die again
Vastness my lover, that is why

You saturate my heart
I love you now but mind
Love is strange

Let Love Be

Each Time, Love

Fire

Within lies vibrant darkness
Layers beneath layers
Waiting for the light

At once shines the sun
At the perfect moment
Layers dark no more

Color like fire burning
The smell of fullness
Breeds passion, and then

Edges wet no longer
Color pales or deepens
Memory consumes passion's flower

Water

Unseen and unexpected
Small fibers meaningless
By seeming chance intersect

Winds chill bare flesh
At the perfect moment
Perception of the weave

Warmth like mother's bosom
The sensation of softness
Breeds contentment, and then

Edges slowly unravel
Patterns fray or fade
Memory consumes comfort's blanket

One

Shrunk and wilted
Cold and hardened
Memory consumes happiness

The smell, the sensation
Once bright never brighter
If memory may be trusted

Trust not, you who despair
This time but forgotten
Forego selfish pain

There are many tastes
For those who have tongues
But to each only one tongue

One taste new
Each in its turn
At each perfect moment

Let love be