When Odysseus came home from the Trojan war, the goddess Athena stretched out the night to give Odysseus and Penelope time. Yes, time for them to get it on, but the wise Athena knew that after living separate lives for so long, Penelope and Odysseus would need time to get used to being married again. She knew that Odysseus would need time to readjust to being home without those pesky Ithacans looking at him all concerned and constantly asking him, Have you gone back to work yet? You can bet the first question his father asked him was, What are you doing with your time, son? Athena knew he needed time to heal.
When Sgt. K was deployed, there were a crapload of blogs I could go to find someone else going through the same things I was. But when it comes to what happens afterward, the Internet is silent. (Unless, there's some great blog I missed. If so, link to it in the comments.) I don't know why other people don't talk about it, but I know why I don't: Because of those news stories that come up every once in a while about a veteran shooting is wife. Because of that episode of Grey's Anatomy where the returned Iraq vet starts choking his girlfriend in his sleep. Because of that movie preview where Toby Maguire is doing his crazy face and and waving a gun around. Because the only way I know how to fight these stereotypes is to show that Sgt. K. and I are OK.
When Sgt. K was deployed, there were a crapload of blogs I could go to find someone else going through the same things I was. But when it comes to what happens afterward, the Internet is silent. (Unless, there's some great blog I missed. If so, link to it in the comments.) I don't know why other people don't talk about it, but I know why I don't: Because of those news stories that come up every once in a while about a veteran shooting is wife. Because of that episode of Grey's Anatomy where the returned Iraq vet starts choking his girlfriend in his sleep. Because of that movie preview where Toby Maguire is doing his crazy face and and waving a gun around. Because the only way I know how to fight these stereotypes is to show that Sgt. K. and I are OK.
Pretending like we're all Stepford-like happy isn't really the truth either. Making the decision to blog about it is scary, but I don't think keeping quiet is doing anyone any good. So if nobody else wants to start talking about it, I will.
