Pat's Ride
Driving in this morning - I never did commit to MARTA as I kept mentioning months and weeks ago - I got to thinking once again about riding. I was also thinking about the various blog efforts to raise money for our troops and the war effort, and thought that riding MARTA would make me feel as if I were making a sacrifice of some kind for the war effort. America doesn't look or feel like a nation at war, frankly, and that disturbs me. (I haven't participated in the Spirit Of America because I haven't really had time or the money to donate. Won't you? I linked to the Liberty Alliance because Boviosity owes a huge debt to Dean's World.)
Then I thought, "I guess I'll start on Monday. New month, and it's supposed to rain tomorrow, who needs the tsimmes? And as a bolt out of the blue, I thought of Pat Tillman. I wondered if he was uncomfortable in Iraq. I wondered if his death was painful. And I realized that to the extent that I believe riding MARTA is a sacrifice that will aid the war effort, I should be doing it. So I'm starting tomorrow.
I'm sure there are other, more drastic sacrifices I could be making. As they occur to me, I might even adopt them. But the power of this experience this morning says something to me. I'll ride the train. I might have to go to bed earlier and get up earlier in the morning and I might get a little wet or get delayed now and then, but I'll do it anyway. What else could I do?