Well, that was stunning, just stunning. He has so perfectly captured a soldier's life, how he feels when things go well, when they don't go well, or when he just doesn't have time to feel. How he chooses not to feel when with other burdens it would put him over the top. How he can never reconcile what he's done or what he's seen. If you have no experience as a soldier in war, and feel you need some idea of it, this is the book I would recommend. It is as illuminating as it is heartbreaking, but it is all there. A good primer for our leaders before they decide again on gain for American lives.

I'm about to finish Steven Pressfield's book Killing Rommel. As if I weren't in absolute awe when he was writing in his Greek world, he now slips those bonds and enters WWII as if he'd been there all of his life. I'm at a loss for words but it matters not because anything I might have to say is irrelevant in the shadow of such understanding. I can only thank him for teaching me the heights to which a writer should aspire. And now I'll walk away blathering like an idiot for another day or so before diving back into his book The War of Art (not a replacement for the home bible, but a worthy supplement).