"Up Mountain," featured on 49 Writers

Here's a short I wrote, featured on the 49 Writers (an Alaskan writers blog).

Click the image. Or follow: http://49writers.blogspot.com/2014/09/alaska-shorts-up-mountain-by-samuel.html

Think You Can Wait?

I was drifting, crying

I was looking for an island

I was slipping under

I'll pull the devil down with me one way or another

I'm out of my mind; think you can wait?

I'm way off the line; think you can wait?

We've been running a sleepless run

Been away from the baby way too long

We've been holding a good night gone

We've been losing our exits one by one

I'm out of my mind; think you can wait?

I'm way off the line; think you can wait?

Did I? (all I have is all)

Think you can wait?

Did I? (all I have is all)

Think you can wait?

What I'm thinking is simple

I'll sell apples and ice water at the temple

I won't make trouble

I'll pull the devil down with me one way or another

We've been running a sleepless run

Been away from the baby way too long

We've been holding a good night gone

We've been losing our exits one by one

I'll try.

I'll try, but I couldn't be better. (all I have is all)

I'll try, but I couldn't be better. (all I have is all)

I'll try, but I couldn't be better. (all I have is all)

Photograph by Giuseppe Pellicano, "The Grenade Series."

Lyrics by The National, "Think You Can Wait."

Hardworking Veterans

"Dedication, sometimes going over the line into fanaticism, is normal for combat veterans in the workplace. It accounts for the success in the world that many do achieve. They typically work much more than forty hours a week. The truism "Money isn't everything" has an unusual application here. I have never known a group of people so little interested in money as the combat veterans I have worked with. If they have worked like madmen, like they are on a "mission," it is not for the money, but for the sake of having a mission that shuts everything else from their minds."

-Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D., Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming

A Correlation Between PTSD & Morale

"There are factors that can mitigate the risk of PTSD from combat. Studies conducted by researchers at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have shown that strong unit leadership, high cohesion, and high unit morale are correlated with lower rates of PTSD in combat units. By contrast, poor leadership and low morale contribute to demoralization, anger, and feelings of helplessness, all of which can compound or exacerbate PTSD symptoms. Once warriors return home, one of the strongest variables that help in recovery is their level of support from loved ones. (28)"

From Once A Warrior Always A Warrior, by Charles W. Hoge, M.D., COL (Ret.)

On the Bitterness of a Soldier

"There is a core of anger in the soul of almost every veteran, and we are justified in calling it bitterness, but the bitterness of one man is not the same thing as the bitterness of another. In one man it becomes a consuming flame that sears his soul and burns his body. In another it is barely traceable. It leads one man to outbursts of temper, another to social radicalism, a third to excesses of conservatism. (21)"

~Willard Waller, a post WW1 sociologist, from Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming by Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D.