Greetings all,
As you see I am petting a Cheetah. I try and sum up the craziness and odyssey of life in Baghdad with one seminal picture each month. I had to decide between this picture and the monkey eating the cigarette. I couldn't get myself in with the monkey since one, he is in a cage, and two, I was afraid he would have a nicotine fit and tear my head off. My second trip to the zoo was a highlight of the five months I have been here. We actually did a detailed assessment of the zoo and it is a fully functional facility that cost 20 cents to get in and has people walking around enjoying themselves. We all were like little kids looking at the animals which included 6 lions that are fed 8 donkeys a day from the herd that grazes just next door. These lions used to be pets of Uday Hussein and looked at us like they knew what we tasted like. The Cheetahs were Sadaam's pets. There was a 100 year old turtle that was a longtime resident of the zoo. Two porcupines that decided to mate in front of us: I was more amazed than anyone else at this particular sight arguing that it must be one of the most rarely observed events in all of nature. No one shared my enthusiasm. And a true Arabian Camel that can travel 1000 miles in the desert without water-so I am told. Yes, it was a glorious day at the Baghdad Zoo until we had to say goodbye to all our new found friends-the lions seemed especially sorry to see us go.
But life is not all a zoo like my father liked to tell me.
Serious work has been afoot as well. From the ground I can tell you the surge is working. The nature of attacks against civilians and coalition forces has changed. They are desperate attacks that are trying to shock the populace into Chaos. I think the vast majority of the populace is starting to get very angry at those attacks. On the flip side I think the surge needs to be over quick and re-deployment needs to happen quickly as well. We don't want to tempt success-we have had very little of it out here and what good we can accomplish in the next few months should be followed up by an announcement to phase re-deploy soldiers. My first four months was an extremely dangerous time and I am glad that things have become safer. Part of that is due to us moving our battle space to the heart of Baghdad.
Believe it or not, things are fairly organized and prosperous in the center right outside the Green Zone.
My daughter turned one year old on the 11th and I am incredibly amazed at life and how it takes its course. I am excited about the video Elizabeth took of the Birthday party. I will finally get to see Cambria walking. Am I alone in feeling how fast life goes? How susceptible we are to so many life ending things that to make it to even one year old is an accomplishment. I remember attending Elizabeth's Great-grandmother's funeral a couple of years ago and thinking how awesome it was that someone could start from a struggling sperm among millions of others, wait quiescently in the womb of another fragile human being, survive infancy to climb through adolescence into puberty and bloom to adulthood-and still you continue. Your body breaks down, you age, you pass the years, one after the other, while countless others, younger than you, end the trek. And there we were celebrating the life and legacy of a woman who lived 88 years. I was fascinated by the accomplishment for someone to live so long, but I have that same fascination at my own daughter living even one year. We are confronted with death on a daily basis here. Death in its most gruesome aspects, death mostly of the young- and I wonder at the gift God gives us, and eventually God takes. A gift that can be so marred and extinguished, precious as it is, just seems to be beneath a loving God.
I believe with my whole heart God is completely good. I believe he is completely reasonable. I believe he is absolutely in control. So what's with this gift he gave us? Here is the point. Life is a gift, but it is the gift before the inheritance. This life is a small token of breath and goodness that whets the spiritual appetite for the inheritance of everlasting life, constant joy and endless friendships that cannot be killed. I hope that each of you can grasp this. I hope the speed and vibrancy of this life is not dulling your senses to the true everlastingness that you possess. I want for my friends and family nothing less then confidence in the face of any fear or challenge and I think what I am communicating is one key. The ultimate key is always Jesus Christ and him crucified. There is no mistake why the cross of Christ is still and always will be the centerpiece of Christianity.
It is God sharing our deepest anxiety and then leading the way to our highest hopes fulfilled.
I hope that this deployment and this war if anything has made us all appreciate the life we have in the United States. We really do enjoy more tokens of breath and goodness in America than many other places in the world and we should be constantly thankful to God that he allows this. I for one cannot wait to see my cousin Josh and pop the cork on that bottle of Merlot we bought in San Fran last year. I especially am looking forward to holding my daughter, kissing my wife on the lips, shooting Billy's service pistol, starting a business with my brother (oh yea, I've put in paperwork to get out of the Army), and gather at Christmas for a family reunion. Blessings for now and I will write, Enshallah, next month.
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