Peter Paul and Mary

Mary Travers died on Spetember 16. She was the Mary of the group Peter, Paul, and Mary. The music of Peter, Paul, and Mary was the soundtrack of the protests against the Vietnam war, the fight for civil rights, the protests against nuclear power, the struggle to free South Africa, and many more protests and acts of social activism.

And my parents raised us listening to their music.

The voice of Mary Travsers was the voice I wanted to be. Singing songs that meant something, that inspired people, that changed the world.

When I heard Mary had died, I felt an immediate need to hear that music again. I finally went out and bought "The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary" and have been listening to it almost non-stop ever since. What strikes me most is that the messages are still so relevant, and, especially in my particular situation, absolutely applicable.

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone" got me first. "Where have all the husbands gone? Gone to soldiers every one." All I could think is that the song could have been written this week. Today, By me. From "Cruel War" to "For Baby" to "The Times They Are a Changin" to "Weave Me the Sunshine" there was a message that I heard and that resonated with me.

We're in tough times these days. We're still fighting two wars. The economy is terrible. People are losing jobs and having a really hard time finding new ones. States are having mandatory furlough days. Kids are growing up too fast. Things are getting better too slowly. And yet, there is music that can reach out to us and remind us that these things have happened before and will happen again. And we'll survive it. There may not be the amazing activism of the 60's (apart from Obama's bid for President), but we cannot forget. This has all happened before and it will happen again.

What we need to do is hold on to our families. Live simpler. Live better. Be inspired. Listen to music. Real music. And remember that the answers are probably still just "Blown' in the Wind."

The Countdown Begins

Mike left on Sunday... at frickin 6:00 AM, which meant that we had to be at Wheeler at 3:30 AM. Fun.

NOT.

And so it begins - from now until he comes home on leave (hopefully February 2010), nothing but emails and phone calls when possible and care packages and praying.

His name is in the bulletin for prayers at St. Ann's and at Holy Ghost Church in Kula.

Niho will continue to ask "where's Daddy?" for the next couple weeks. The good answer seems to be "He went to work for a long time." Niho has also started coming downstairs to sleep with me at about 5 AM - something he hasn't done for months. He misses him.

I will blog here - and read if you'd like. I'm cocooning for a bit this first week he's gone. And then it'll get better.

Counting down to deployment

Here we are again. Deployment in approximately 25 days, give or take a few.

This is deployment number 3 for us in the last 5 years. A year in Afghanistan in 2004, 3 months after we were married. 15 months in Iraq in 2006-2007 - that sucked. And now another week in Iraq. Sigh.

It's weird. I find myself strangely myopic leading up to this deployment. I don't care much about work, all the other stuff that clutters my life. I care about spending time with the family, and that's about it. There will be plenty of time to work and focus on life craziness after Mike leaves. For now, I want things to be good with my family. I have 25 days to be with my famuily - my entire family - all 4 of us. After that, well, no family together until Mike comes home on leave, hopefully in Feb. 2010. Damn. 2010.

So I will post this next year of deployment here.... if you want to read, go for it. Not sure how good this blog will be - be it's a place for me to get it all down.

Peace.