Seth

My friend Seth left for Iraq yesterday.

This time three years ago, he was beginning his senior year in high school. Starting quarterback and defacto leader of the football team. All in all, a great athlete at whatever sport in which he was participating.

We got to know him pretty well as he spent time at our house with other members of the varsity and junior varsity football teams. He housesat for us-and only once were the cops called for an over-the-top party.....He can tell that story, though--let's just say we got to know him well.

Outside of sport, though, he really didn't give too much of a damn about anything. A mediocre student (at best) he muddled through. Outside of class, he was a big goof, a clown, a showoff. Your basic small-town, truck-drivin', redneck jock.

After graduating from high school, he partied the summer away and went off to college, the beginnings of a beer gut already established. The parties were great, the girls were great, but the classes weren't. He was pretty aimless.

He announced one day that college wasn't for him. He wanted to go into the Marines.

Most everyone around these parts stood slack-jawed. Graduates of a prep school, even as small as Brentwood, go to college and get degrees. They don't go into the military. People 'round here raised their eyebrows, sighed deeply, shook their heads--"whatever was he thinking?"

My husband and I were among a small group that welcomed the idea. Grumpy Guy and I looked at each other when we "heard Seth's news"- and almost simultaneously said "what a fabulous idea." GG spent four years in the Army, repaying an ROTC college scholarship, so we knew the lifestyle that would be imposed on Seth if he made it through marine bootcamp. We both thought it's just what he needed.

The change in Seth in nine months as a Marine has been nothing short of miraculous. This big goof of a guy who thought life was full of beer drinking, parties, and clowning around has become a soft-spoken, sincere, quiet, reflective, determined man. He's stronger than ever, with a focus that I have never seen in him. He has a mission. He had a purpose in life. He has a path.

Seth was here last week, before he went to North Carolina to ship out. He spent alot of time up at school, talking to the football team, visiting his little brother's and sisters' classes, just visiting with everyone. He made a point to give me a bearhug, shake GG's hand and spend a few minutes alone with us, telling us all about his trip ahead and what he will be doing. Then he gave me one more hug, a little tighter this time, told me he loved us, and went off with his dad.

So my friend Seth is in Iraq.

Whatever your feelings on “global peacekeeping”, remember the men and women who are voluntarily going out to defend the way of everyday life we Americans so often take for granted- the ability to make choices for ourselves and for our children, to decide the course of our lives, to shape our lives and make them fulfilling as we see fit.

And to help make it possible for others to make those types of decisions for themselves and their families as well. To give others the freedoms that are so easy for us here.

The next time you are tired, hot, miserable, cranky, achy or just feeling blah-try to remember how lucky you are to be an American. To be free. To have someone like Seth willing to make sure you stay that way.

And, please, keep Seth and those like him in your prayers.