It is not supposed to be like this!

 Last night, I woke up from a dream. I dreamed of a broken man in his mid 50s, talking:

It was not supposed to be like this!

One day they came to his school. And they talked about "Only the few". About "Honor".  And "Glory". About "Serving your country".  He came home, with a fire in his chest, and a light in his eyes. Was he one of the few?

How can you tell him not to listen to this? It's your country! How could you tell him not to answer the call? He would not have listened to you anyhow! His mind was full of "Honor and Glory". He knew what he wanted to do. But it wasn't supposed to be like this!

Only now you realize, you lost your son that very same day!

Then one day he left to join the cause. Full of life! Full of energy. Of hopes and dreams. And ideals. They brought him back in a bag. What was left of his body. They unfolded a flag over his empty coffin. And folded it again. And handed it to you. 

It was not supposed to be like this!

Then they left. And his friends left, too, and went to college. And you are left with a flag. Watching from the outside. They graduate. Have a career. They have Sunday BarBQs. Camping trips. Girldfriends. They marry, and have kids of their own. While your son just disappeared. Life goes on, you're told. But it was not supposed to be like this! 

"Only the few" they say. Only the gullible, you say. "Serve your country" they say. How can you serve your country when you die a senseless death, you say. You serve your country when you live! When you have a job. And contribute to the common good. When you travel the world, and make friends wherever you go. When you work to make the world a better place for the next generation. When you bring up a child, to be part of that next generation. When you pay your taxes, do your work, vote for good people. That's when you serve your country, you say!

It was not supposed to be like this!

You walk down memory lane. Back to your house, where you lived with your family. Happily. Joyfully. Until he left. You had dumped it way below its value. You couldn't stand to live there any longer. Every room you enter, every piece of furniture, every view out the window into the yard held a memory of him. You thought, getting rid of the house, would get rid of your pain. It didn't. It doesn't...

When they broke your child, they also broke you. It was not supposed to be like this!

There are people with their grandchildren in the park. You are at home, with a flag. It was not supposed to be like this!

And for what? The situation there is now worse than before! Our country is now in more danger than before! We are now more despised and hated than before! What a disservice to our country they made him do! 

It was not supposed to be like this!

When they talked to your son about "Honor and Glory", about "Serving your Country", they wasted his life. And they wasted yours that same day.

Then I woke up, all shaking and emotional!

Had to get up and write it down immediately, before the spirit of the dream left me. Before the message of that man in my dream was over-blasted by the little worries and oh so important tasks of my own life. Before I would go back to normal. The normal, where our kids are told stories about "Honor and Glory". The normal, where young impressionable almost adults are brainwashed into following the call of the piper. Where oh so many are sent into oh so terrible situations, from which oh so many return broken - dead or even worse living dead...

It is not supposed to be like this!