Turn About Is Fair Play

Turn About Is Fair Play

I took the day off today, reclining much of the day with a heating pad behind my upper back, centrally located between my shoulder blades, watching TV, hanging out on FaceBook and reading.  Oh yeah, it’s Veterans Day too.

I cannot believe how much media attention has been directed towards veterans and Veterans Day this year.  Some of the offers of free entrees from big-name restaurants are more impressive than others, but all are welcome signs that folks want to acknowledge a debt to those who gave up two, three, or more years of their lives to Uncle Sugar.  Some of us went kicking and screaming, but that does not replace the twenty-one months and three days that were taken from me back in 1972 and 1973.

A funny thing has transpired over the past fifteen months or so, though, ever since I began receiving medical care from the VA Clinic in Ukiah.  I have gradually become less bitter towards the military and more appreciative of my own efforts.  They say one pays to play in this life, and for much of my life I felt the price the military extracted from me was way too high.

Now I am beginning to reevaluate my own judgment.  When I see how challenging it is to get adequate medical care these days, I am grateful that I toughed it out back when I had a lot more resiliency in life.  True, I have to take the care provider offered, and there is frequently a delay before I receive services, but the quality is excellent, and the staff with whom I have come into contact really care.

So today I am reveling in the greetings of many people who responded to a picture I posted on FaceBook.  People are so warm towards others on F/B and it has been heartwarming to feel the love.  I used to feel kind of embarrassed because I was the only person in my entire social circle who got caught up in the draft, as though I were so inept that I couldn’t avoid what others seemed to be able to sidestep.

When I remember how bleak life seemed, the morning I stepped through the doors of the Los Angeles army entrance station, back in 1972, I am amazed, just as I am amazed to be able to receive health care at this critical juncture of my life.  Turn about is fair play, say I.