Tag: oresteia

by Wendy and John Seefried

8/1/2008

John: Now that our pilgrimage is complete and the hand turned cherry pies are but memories of a feast with friends around a camp fire, my heart sinks at the thought of paying $4 per gallon of gas on the next pilgrimage to Assateague. The dollars in our pockets continue to drop in value but the cost of everything increases because of fuel prices. I long to return to sandy shores of Assateague, I know that the cost will be far greater than the last time we visited.

Wendy: Yes, there will be greater cost and risk again too. Remember how the wind howled and the siren voice of the Park Ranger rang out at 1AM announcing that a fast moving storm was approaching. We had traded the security of our condo for the nylon tent enclosure pitched near our Honda Odyssey to thwart the ever blustering wind. All night I lay awake ready shuttle the children to the car should the wind overpower our little wind strewn tent. But our tent did prevail.

John: As the blazing sun again shines its first rays across the far reaches of the Atlantic deep green and placid all is still in dawns first light. As blazing rays make their way higher, ever higher, into the morning sky the face of the water changes. The heat moves the air and the winds take their effect on the water. Indeed all that can be seen of the great sea is blown into a froth, one white capped wave after another all way to edge of the sky that bends low to kiss the now agitated sea.

In this same way the once calm United States of America economy has been blown to angry pieces by the ravages of an unprovoked war which has left many homes empty of their strongest young men.

Wendy: But surely the tyrant, Saddam, could not be allowed to molest his people and threaten the relative stability so near to the City of David.

John: Stability is now enjoyed by the people sworn to exterminate Israel, the Iranians. And we, Israel’s greatest strength all the globe over, have deposed the Iraqi foe that for so long occupied the war efforts of Iran. The Iraqi desert sand is stained red with the blood of Americans, Iraqis, and foreign combatants that have joined into what the enemy considers jihad and our nation considers liberation from tyranny for democracy without God at its foundation. It seems that the nation is feeling the weight of the war in unusual ways.

Wendy: Is it not better to engage the enemy across the sea instead of at our own doorstep? It is far better that our brave and skilled men gather themselves and fight in their units and battalions behind their iron warhorse rather than be cut down mercilessly and unaware as they flew the beautiful, but tear streaked skies on that fateful eleventh day of September?

John: At one point it seemed right to strike back at the terrorists, but our county’s targets are not at all clear now, and many are far from home.

Wendy: Hopefully, our next president can bring about a peaceful resolution to this complex situation.