I bounce in on day one with a shaky leg, eyes darting around the vast stage, curtain to curtain, scanning for familiar faces. Leaping out of my seat, knowing there is much to do.   I drag myself in on audition day, bearing my racing heart. Today becomes sprinting lines, clammy palms, clenched fists, hot […]

Pillars push up into the sky. Each pillar represents a battle, a brave soldier, a hero, glory, and also the chug of engines, the taste of gunsmoke, the explosion of a bombshell, the burst of light, heat, and death.   The loss of human life, in the name of justice.   Water flows, rising peacefully […]

  The breakfast buffet stands, empty of the sizzling meat.   Pancakes wait for syrup. Scrambled eggs slowly cool. Potatoes with onions wait forgotten. Cereal and milk sit with spoon and bowl.   Students crowd the platters contemplating the vacant plate. We all want to have some chow before we leave to memorials and museums. […]

  I stand in the shadow of a silver spire, which extends, unending, into the hazy, cloud speckled sky.   Four sculpted soldiers, positioned at one end of the memorial, forever guarding the core values of the Air Force.   They stand unrelenting, unperturbed by the cluster of children snapping photos, whose voices are reminiscent […]

I am surrounded by metal arms swooping forward in a salute to those who lost their lives. Golden lights illuminate the tiny engravings, hundreds of names and dates, names and dates that mean the world to some.   The families who lost someone on the planes seem to be there, standing with me. Their cries […]