Someday You Will Know Why I had to Go

I wanted to write something on the state of economic malaise and the sports world, but I don't have a lot of time right now and I thought about something like this...

The young girl saw her dad with his head shaved and and his boots on, his uniform covering his towering body.

Dads are towering to little girls, no matter how tall they are.

I never saw my father don a military uniform as a young tike, but my image of him in it when he was younger and skinnier, in pictures and in my imagination--- I do remember were larger than life.

"Why do you have to go? " She inquired plaintively.

"Someday you will know," he replied, his eyes glistening.

"Why do you have to go for so long?" she continued.

"Well, the job that soldiers do require a good amount of time away from the people that we protect. The farther that we do our job away from our loved ones, the better a job we do."

"I don't want my daddy to go to war."

"I don't like the idea of war either. But you know, if it weren't for heroes like George Washington and other great leaders, some of whom died for those causes, you and I would not be in a happy house and country like we are now."

His daughter couldn't resist the same question posed so many times before," But why do you have to go? Can't others do it?"

Her dad smiled at her.

"You know how mommy and I ask you kids to share, even when sometimes it is hard to do?"

"Yeah."

"Well, currently, there are many soldiers and men and women who spent years of their lives fighting the bad guys and helping our friends in places like Iraq and Afghanistan---some of their families are very worried for them. And some of their families have had a lot of problems here at home. They need their parents and husbands and wives. I am doing my part to share some of my time, and you and mommy and your siblings are helping all those other families with me!"

She thought about that.

"What if you got killed?"

He addressed her by name. "You know how Jesus promised us Eternal Life? I strongly believe in that. If I don't make it back this tour, I will see you again in Heaven. And we will be so happy then! But you will always have memories of me in this life---you have things that mean a lot to me---like the times I spent at the computer writing things, much of that I intended for you to read some day when you were older."

"Also, just by staying home in the United States is no guarantee that we all survive---there are car accidents, random crimes and bad illnesses that happen all the time to good people. In some places like parts of Africa or Asia, those things happen all the time. And part of the reason why I am going away as a soldier is to help the world and our friends abroad have a better chance at enjoying what we have---freedom and safety."

"How do you help people being safe with guns?"

He loved her innate intelligence.

"Police and good guys carry guns in order to make sure that the bad guys don't hurt innocent people---the good people who cannot protect themselves from bigger, scarier ones."

"Dad, I am going to miss you a lot."

"I will miss you a ton, too. But you know that we will always be together. Families are forever. And most of us will make it home. This conflict---the war on terrorism, as it is called, is not as bad some of the awful ones of the past. The Civil War, Word War One and Two, Korea, Vietnam..."

" Dad, do you think I could be a soldier some day?"

"Sure, that's possible, but part of what we are doing now is trying to make it better for the future so that not so many people have to go to war---to be in harm's way. I would prefer for you and me to be co-authors of a book someday. How does that sound?"

"Yeah! I love to write stories."

"Me, too. It would be neat to work on something together."

"I love you, Dad."

"I love you, too."

"I will see you next year---when you will be a big third grader, reading bigger and longer books all the time."

"Yeah, dad, maybe I will write a book about you!"

"Whether you do that or not, I promise you: Someday you will know why I had to go. And we will be together again and talk all about it."

"Good bye, dad."

"Good bye [name]. I will write you often. I love you."

PapaClinch