Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

He cannot comb his hair.

That really touches my heart, for some reason.  It seems so sad.

Neither can he draw his wife close to him with his arms around her shoulders.  He could not pick up his children to raise them to his shoulders when they were little or raise them in the air playfully.  Neither will he be able to do so when he has his first grandbaby.

When he gestures with his hands and arms, it looks painfully awkward and stiff because it is.

I’m talking about John McCain, of course. 

I was reading this week’s issue of Newsweek last night, which is entirely devoted to the ends and outs of this election just past.  It begins with the first inklings of running for president by several of the candidates and goes through the entire process leading up to last week’s election.

It is very insightful and fascinating reading, which I was not expecting.  In fact, when I picked the issue up and thumbed through it, I thought to myself that I won’t have to spend any time with this issue because it looks boring and predictable.  It wasn’t.

I’ve not quite finished reading it – I have one final section to read.  But, once I started reading, I could not put it down.  Oh, I flipped through some of the mid-sections rather quickly.  After all, there’s just so much I really wish to know about who eats what for breakfast every day and what their sleep habits are.

I was actually most interested in reading about John McCain, who is an American hero first class, as far as I’m concerned.  And that was going fine until I read the sentence talking about one of his closest friends and advisors who traveled with hm on all of his journeys.  The sentence said that one of this dear friend’s jobs every day was to comb John McCain’s hair.

I was a bit taken back momentarily as I read that.  It sounded like such an intimate thing to do, you know.  It is, don’t you think?  I do.

I then read the next sentence, which said that McCain cannot raise his arms far enough to perform that simple task each morning.  I knew he could not raise his arms because of the breaking of his arms and torture in Hanoi while he was in captivity for 5 1/2 years during the Vietnam war.  But, somehow the significance of that had not really totally dawned on me until last night.  

So, I’m reflecting on the sacrifice and service of all of the men and women who have ever served in our armed forces from the very beginning of this great country until now.  After all, tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, when we nationally spend the day thanking those who have already served at whatever personal cost so that we all might be free.

John McCain ranks among those who served in the military – the Navy, gave his all, and then came home to serve ever after, so far, in his life as a public servant in the Senate and to run for president of the United States of America.

Whatever your politics, he is worthy of our admiration and praise.

Dee