Battle-tested to transactional

     "We weren't running," some jetted away unified on message.  "And we're not chasing you," a media rep said.  The airport lounge was dull and the sounds were absorbed into the place.  More talk for the saturated sponge. 

     What was clear to everyone was that every nation was armed to the teeth and monies flowing because of ongoing war were allowing the beast of war to keep building itself. 

     "Talks" could only happen commeasurate to accounting. 

     "We can't make that promise," world leaders were talking about nation's stands as they would talk about being at home.  Neighbor kid wants to borrow the ladder.  Some leaders were like...We're not even home yet.  So?  So, I don't even know if the ladder is where I left it.  And who is the kid?

     A wife of one diplomat cautiously shared a cranberry muffin with the wife of another diplomat.  "That way we can keep our mouths full and talk less." 

     "That's good," a President remarked, "Keep listening." 

     Paragraph after paragraph was moved from the TO BE DONE to the COMPLETED task pile.

     The blood of a captive and a mostly torched beginning to a plan for peace.  The remains of the paper'd thoughts almost weightless to the rumble of tanks. 

     "Tell Mother Teresa to move her ass," a soldier hollered.  "That's an order," a Captain reinforced.  "We'll have to go with only our Christian contentment," a missionary woman remarked of clearing out of a sandbagged plywood shack used to conduct staging of humanitarian aid.

     Razed revealed the crude entrance of a tunnel.  Almost immediately visiting/observing people were shocked and satisfied.  One radio'd a different battlefield, "Vind me a dunn-el."  A Senior Ranking Official held the cord up in the air, plug pulled.  "It doesn't exactly work quite like that."  Guy had a broken nose.  Ever after we came up with a hundred stories why.  The long and the short: Youwa notta spose'd to sneak up on peopwah.  By the time that conversation was re-iterated we could add, especially when they are getting ready to disarm a bomb.

     Evidence strapped to steering wheels of explodable vehicles, children's toys, AID packages...all of it ordinance.

     Allies and Axis had to agree to some topics being "delicate" and some aspects of what had been "lawful" being different then.  That was after neutral peacekeepers had been strapped to fronts of tanks and other fuel-hot sources since they were the documents. 

     It was slow going walking back a bit from the nuclear edge.

     At a Regional Airport that was an ongoing battle to keep open a Catholic priest helped couples renew vows.  And admonished all of us to quit running around the planet airing dirty laundry and having marital spats.  He blessed rings and jewelry in bags for safes.  Words were sparse, but feelings were speaking volumes.

     Somewhere on some Continent someone asked, "How 'bout a song?" 

     A scholar realized that traditional folk music of all variety was "country music". 

     People slept soundly for the first time in a long time.

     Back when.  We realized a lot in having a grace about "language barrier" while being students of real life and being actors in geopolitics.  One thing was that Hamas was an extremist group, a relative "little" to the "big" Islam.  And even "Nato" was a minor to a major war.  So,  because that's more about alliances and liaisons to Allies and Axis.  Really, all gets subsumed by military in war.  And war is unusual times.  Most everything gets rearranged linguistically.  Understanding that helped us plow through a lot of civilian tensions that were ripping us apart.  The language for people and stuff changes as the material world becomes resources, damages, and casualties.  The focus changes into survival of a nation's military.  If and when that survives, only then is there additional life possible.

    Dr. Charles Stanley today.  (1989)How To Handle Adversity.  Brilliantly starts out with the Apostles questioning why a man was (i)born(i) blind.  Stanley quickly dials down on Jesus answering in a multiplicitous way.  Pointing out the (i)assumptions(i) that the Apostles made even in the limited thinking that (i)sin(i) must have caused this. 

     Dr. Stanley also dives right into some adversity originating with God (chastisement so we grow spiritually) and some adversity as the muck of sin.  It's human predicament.  And it's relevant even in the face of adversity the size of autonomous warfare, economic troubles, and humanitarian crisis. 

     It's why nation built on strong foundation of clear right and wrong (law and order) stands a better chance of surviving attempts to destroy it and fend off "evil".  

"Wasn't no funky chicken dance,"

  She said somehow quietly amidst the roar of jet engines and shouts.  Her eyes found the floor instead of kissing homesoil or glancing too long.  Too long we'll lock eyes, she'd told the Tough Talk women's group. 

     "What was it then?" He coo'd a little too loud in her ear as he snuck up behind and put his hands on her hips.  She brushed him away.  "This ain't no bar cowboy.  Cargo duty done, we'll think about that." 

     He looked honestly surprised.  And his buddy looked him right in the face as he wheeled a handcart over his boot toes.  The young man looked down at his new steel toes and smacked buddy's shoulder lightly.  "Why'd ya dirty my boots?"  

     "Even with only two toes in you can get distracted." He looked at the girls in rugged work gear.  "I can see why you would, but," he rolled the hand dolly back over the boots.  "Almost clipped dem dere knees pardner." 

     

     Nooga lifted the leaf burning ban so we had a little fire to heat up beans and rice.  "Cousins brought it North," was said to a thanks.