1.29.2007
THE ORDINARY WAR
A friend gave me a book once titled WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING. It was written by a seasoned correspondent who'd seen much bloodshed and conflict in his day. The book came to me two days before the beginning of the current war in Iraq, and, two days before I'd board a schooner for a couple months at sea. The black and red cover cut into me with its title sentence. Hedges, the correspondent, was a scholar and former divinity student, quoting Homer and Napoleon. I thought no better witness and documentarian of war. And, I thought, no better gift for me, one who'd be surrounded by water on the eve of such changing times.
I never read it. Hemingway instead. The Hedges' book fell through some hatch in the ship, but it had left a mark with only its title.
It was four years before something struck me like that again. What hit me this second time was a photograph, taken by another good friend, Cary Norton. He spent a couple months in wartime Iraq, likely around the same season as mine working sails and studying stars. He got this shot somewhere over the desert, a helicopter carrying supplies or food, maybe ammo, to some other sundown desert place. To me, the mystery is what is in the box.
I wonder what the pilot of that helicopter would say about Hedges' title.
For more photographs from Cary Norton, visit www.theordinary.org.
A friend gave me a book once titled WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING. It was written by a seasoned correspondent who'd seen much bloodshed and conflict in his day. The book came to me two days before the beginning of the current war in Iraq, and, two days before I'd board a schooner for a couple months at sea. The black and red cover cut into me with its title sentence. Hedges, the correspondent, was a scholar and former divinity student, quoting Homer and Napoleon. I thought no better witness and documentarian of war. And, I thought, no better gift for me, one who'd be surrounded by water on the eve of such changing times.
I never read it. Hemingway instead. The Hedges' book fell through some hatch in the ship, but it had left a mark with only its title.
It was four years before something struck me like that again. What hit me this second time was a photograph, taken by another good friend, Cary Norton. He spent a couple months in wartime Iraq, likely around the same season as mine working sails and studying stars. He got this shot somewhere over the desert, a helicopter carrying supplies or food, maybe ammo, to some other sundown desert place. To me, the mystery is what is in the box.
I wonder what the pilot of that helicopter would say about Hedges' title.
For more photographs from Cary Norton, visit www.theordinary.org.
posted by TB at 09:10
