Books Related to War, Trauma, and Consciousness
  • Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine
    Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine
    by Tyler E. Boudreau
  • HIDDEN BATTLES ON UNSEEN FRONTS: Stories of American Soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD
    HIDDEN BATTLES ON UNSEEN FRONTS: Stories of American Soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD
    by Patricia Driscoll, Celia Straus
  • The Great War and Modern Memory
    The Great War and Modern Memory
    by Paul Fussell
  • Just And Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations
    Just And Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations
    by Michael Walzer
  • Dispatches
    Dispatches
    by Michael Herr
  • Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
    Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
    by Judith Herman
  • Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum (American Empire Project)
    Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum (American Empire Project)
    by Michael T. Klare
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
    All Quiet on the Western Front
    by Erich Maria Remarque
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls
    For Whom the Bell Tolls
    by Ernest Hemingway
  • Notes from Underground
    Notes from Underground
    by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • Surviving Iraq: Soldiers' Stories
    Surviving Iraq: Soldiers' Stories
    by Elise Forbes Tripp
  • Mrs. Dalloway
    Mrs. Dalloway
    by Virginia Woolf
  • The Things They Carried
    The Things They Carried
    by Tim O'Brien
  • Homage to Catalonia
    Homage to Catalonia
    by George Orwell
  • Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
    Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
    by Jonathan Shay
  • Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph
    Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph
    by T.E. Lawrence
  • The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World
    The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World
    by Elaine Scarry
  • Essays (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)
    Essays (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)
    by George Orwell
  • With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
    With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
    by E.B. Sledge
  • Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides
    Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides
    by Christian G. Appy
  • War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
    War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
    by Chris Hedges

 

Friday
Nov302012

NPR: Talk of the Nation - Moral Injury

On November 21, 2012, 'Talk of the Nation' hosted a segment on the issue of 'Moral Injury.' The conversation included me and two friend of mine (the very distinguished) Dr. Jonathan Shay and Reverend Rita Brock, PhD. Yes, I was the least credentialed member of the panel. The conversation also included some veterans who called into the show and, I think, really added some useful perspectives. 

Here is the link: NPR

Scroll down to read the transcript or listen to the show. 

Monday
Sep102012

BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL 2012

Authors Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya (The Watch), Brian Castner (The Long Walk), Anna Badkhen (Peace Meals), and Tyler Boudreau will read and talk together about "Words of Conflict."

The Brooklyn Book Festival 2012 will be held on September 23 from 10am to 6pm.

Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza
209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 

 

Sunday
Oct162011

Art and the War Experience

There are a number of interesting exhibits, film screenings, plays, and discussions coming up that bring art and the war experience together. The poster below gives more details on those events. I'll be speaking with author Doug Anderson and artist Matt Mitchell at UMASS on Thursday, November 17th, at 5pm. We'll be in the Cape Cod Lounge. See you there.

Friday
Sep092011

Artists in Context

A Collaborative Art Event: Check it out. 

I'm going to the Sunday performance, September 11th at 4pm.

There will be a panel discussion afterwards to discuss the role of the arts in our understanding of war. I'll be one of the speakers.

Here's a link to the other members of the PANEL 

Sunday
Jun262011

AFTERMATH

This may be the most extraordinary play I've seen in years and years. I'm overwhelmed by its power and authenticity.

Find it. See it.

Let me break it down...this thing ain't over yet. (Check out the preview below.)

                        

 

 

Monday
Jun202011

High School Students Ride Across the Country for Wounded Veterans

Seven students of the Saint Paul School of Concord, NH are riding across the country to raise money for wounded veterans. Sounds like a pretty good cause, to me. I think I'll join them for a leg. I'll meet them in Niagara Falls and ride to the end in York, Maine. The ride is in progress now. (Click the image to see their webpage.)

SPS Cyclists

 Last Day - Maine

Sunday
Dec262010

Talk about war with Congressman Neal

A small meeting in the office of Mayor Higgins' office about defunding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan...a start...a step...something anyway. It really is time.

 

 

Monday
Sep062010

Ambush on T Street

I'm going.

(The show will be dedicated to the Vietnam veteran, George Williams, who recently died. George was a peace activist, an artist, a former NYC fire fighter, and a good friend. Like a lot of other people, I'm going to miss him.) 

Monday
Jun282010

Memorial Challenge

325 Miles later (from Arlington to Virgnina Beach) and I see the determination of a few veterans with some pretty significant disabilities to overcome.

The event was wrapped in what I would describe as a 'hyper-patriotic' package, which was interesting to think about. You know when you see some of these veterans (their war experiences etched so indelibly on their bodies) that the emphasis of the Ride 2 Recovery is making them feel welcomed home and honored and giving them a sense of solidarity.

 

That message--a positive one--came through loud and clear...I got it.

 

On the other hand...the heavy military presence in the event, I think, tends to perpetuate the idea that only other veterans can or do or are willing to...get it, that is. From my very non-military hometown, I've found that is certainly not the case at all. At any rate, 'patriotism' in the sense of being enthusiastic about war is not a necessary ingredient to recovery. You can have your doubts...so to speak...and still progress as a human being.

  

 General Anthony Zinni

 

 

Anyway...as all bicycle rides are great, this one was, too. I was glad to have experienced it. I thank Give An Hour in particular for making it happen for me.

Team 'Give an Hour': Nick, Cody, Tyler, Andrew 

Tuesday
May252010

Septimus Gardens Update:

Blooms have come and gone...lettuce is growing rapidly along with the perennials...annuals sowed.

My vegetable selection is not comprehensive--I've got lettuce--but hey, it's my first time so it's a big deal to me. Besides...I really like salad!

Grand Rapids & Mesculin Mix

The 'vegetables' of my labor!To bury the war, so to speak (in the ground instead of, say, in one's gut), and have it spring to life in this form is remarkable; it is a lot easier to swallow this way...and tasty, too.  

See more in the Photo Gallery

Tuesday
May252010

Still Cycling?

In case anyone was wondering if I'm still in the saddle...YES, I AM!

Last week the CRW Spring Century (103 miles in this case).

Starting Line at the CRW Spring Century

Next Week the Memorial Challenge (approximately 325 miles), sponsored by Ride 2 Recovery

Learn More

Tuesday
May042010

A Gardening Project for Combat Veterans in the UK

More about the non-profit organization, Gardening Leave.....

I like this.

 (See the Website)

 

Tuesday
May042010

Horticulture Therapy for Veterans in Scotland

Digging for victory: gardening helps former soldiers with stress

KATRINA TWEEDIE

8 May 2007

A ground-breaking initiative in Ayrshire is providing a healing oasis of calm, discovers Katrina Tweedie.

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order."

John Burroughs, American naturalist and essayist As they methodically prepare the ground for planting poppies, the group simply looks like a team of gardeners lost in thought.

But the men are veterans suffering psychological trauma after harrowing tours in combat zones, and their labours are a form of therapy designed to treat their illnesses.

This is the first time horticultural therapy has been used to treat former service men and women with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other combat-related mental health problems....

(Read more...)

Monday
May032010

Septimus Gardens 

Digging In

Twenty-one years ago, in the Marine Corps School of Infantry, I learned the phrase ‘digging in’. Literally, it meant to build a defensive position or to hold one’s ground. We used short collapsible shovels called ‘entrenching tools,’ a label held over from the First World War, though we never dug any trenches. The modern military digs fighting holes, narrow gashes in the earth six feet deep intended to keep the shrapnel out and withstand the weight of an enemy tank. This spring in my own home, I discovered a new definition for digging in, new to me, that is, but old to the world.

In 2004, I went to Iraq. Being an urban conflict we dug neither trenches nor fighting holes; we resided in whatever buildings we could find unoccupied. But that phrase ‘digging in’ endured and we did dig in. The struggle to make any visible headway in Iraq was intense and heartbreaking. The lives we sacrificed and took could not be applied to any tangible victory; there was no advance to map; there was no ground taken or lost. Our perseverance lay in our ability to remain static and withstand the deepening tension between Iraqis and ourselves.

Today I am home again—my body is at any rate but my mind has never been able to fully return from the battlefield. I am steeped daily and nightly in the memories of the desert. I’ve been home for five years now. My life has become entirely about managing those memories and I’ve learned some valuable techniques. I’ve traveled to Jordan to work with refugees, for instance, written a book, ridden my bicycle across the United States, and spoken to thousands of people about the wars of our time. It is the latest of my strategies, however, that has pulled me back to those days of digging in.

I stood on my property one morning looking across all the dead materials I had to clear off—the sticks, the leaves, the fallen branches—and it made me weary. I’ve had enough of death, I thought. I want to get involved with life. So from that day I decided to grow things. I marched to the shed and rummaged among my tools to find what I’d need to create gardens of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. I don’t know a thing about gardening; I’ve never planted a seed in my life but I knew when I put my hand on the shovel that I’d need that. 

Digging in has always been, for me, about killing or keeping myself from being killed. In war, soldiers score the earth with their shovels, some of them essentially digging their own graves. The first time I pressed the heel of my boot on a garden spade I felt the shift inside me like tectonic plates beneath the surface. As I dug into the soil with my fingers, pulling out the rocks and the roots and preparing it for sowing, I felt the ground in an entirely different way; I saw it in a new light.

The act of digging as creation rather than destruction has been deeply stirring to me, so far anyway. I’ve only just started. Since beginning the cultivation of my land I have found the weight of my war memories less ponderous than before, less haunting, less tyrannical. They are my memories and they will always be there, of course, but gardening has somehow overshadowed them as if the plants were growing wild inside my head. I say let them grow and I’ll use my memories for compost.  

And by the way, I don’t believe it is simply that gardening work is engrossing or even that it is rewarding. It is both, certainly, but there’s something more. The entire process of growing from digging in to harvest is perfectly representative of the life cycle. All species struggle, in their own manners, to sustain themselves. It is the natural and logical pattern of existence. Only the human race works so hard to destroy itself.

It saddens me, sometimes, to think that I devoted most of my adult life to this business. After a while the causes for war cannot penetrate the essence of our purpose as warriors—to kill. If we do it long enough, it is what we become. The causes no longer matter. With the green movement underway and a revitalized interest in the environment, local produce, and public gardening surging into the American consciousness, I feel I am back in synch with life’s intrinsic momentum.  

Coming home has been more than just adapting to life in the aftermath of war; it has been very much about remaking myself. Beneath the ramparts of my consciousness there is still the man I could have been; I know it. Envisioning that character and creating him has been a slow process. All of my life’s experiences have shaped my identity and perspectives but war, I think, has made a disproportionate claim on me. I need to take a little back and I will. Gardening is going to help. And I can smile now when I think of digging in.

 And so began the Septimus Gardens

 

Wednesday
Sep092009

DONE!

Done and home again. Should have posted this a while ago...sorry about that.

Good to be home again...now for the real mountains...LIFE!

Crossing the finish line in Northampton, MA

Saturday
Aug222009

Single-Digit Midget

With the the rain, and the mountains, and all these damned squiggly roads, Pennsylvania has generally sucked, BUT, admittedly, I've had some bad-ass down hill rides.

AND...

I was, as of yesterday, only 9 days away from home; I am now officially a "single-digit midget" or in military parlance...I'm short.

SO...

Overall, I'm happy...just a little worn out.

Entering Pennsylvania

Sunday
Aug162009

In the Zone

Broke into the Eastern Time Zone. Arrived South Bend to another great group of folks. Swooped over to the Notre Dame campus for a quick look at Touchdown Jesus who towers above the Irish football stadium.

Off to the Big Apple now via OH, PA & NJ. 11 days of straight riding, no rest; all business from here to NYC.

The heat/humidity is getting up there these days. But the calendar is getting short. Soon I'll be a single-digit midget!

Sunday
Aug092009

Fargo, ND to Rockford, IL

Been super-lazy about blogging.

In a nutshell: Minnesota was surprisingly beautiful--Twin Cities seemed very cool. The riding was easy-going, the weather was mild. All good.

Wisconsin is really gorgeous, I mean more so than I imagined, really pleasant. Very pastoral. Very quiet.

Madison was a great town. Lots of people came out to ride with me a while; lots more joined me at the Java Joint. Thank you. I enjoyed myself a lot.

Thanks Rothschild!

Thanks Eileen!

I just may return there someday.

Riding into Madison, WI

The ride down toward Rockford was...ummm...not as great. It was a "4H" day. Headwind, Hills, Heat & Humidity. Lots of sweat.

Into Chicago next..."the windy city" they call it, which is fine as long as its blowing my way.

Saturday
Jul252009

Bismarck to Fargo, ND

Hopped 80 miles to Jamestown on 7/23 then the final 98 miles the next day to Fargo. The days were actually not too terrible. The night in that mosquito infested (and humid) rest area in Jamestown was worse.

I'd planned to stop another night before Fargo, but favorable conditions  can make one kind of greedy for mileage. Had the wind at my back, finally, and flat terrain--Webster flat, not "Montana Flat".

Two miles short of a century, I wanted to circle the block a couple of times to get the even hundred...but my legs voted against it. Being outnumbered, I relented--democracy in action.

As I rode into Fargo, I kept looking for scenery from the popular movie by the same name. Turns out, it was filmed in Minnesota. (???)

Laying over here for a couple of days and resting easy knowing that ND is under my belt. Next, to Minnesota; I'll continue my quest for "Fargo" scenes there.

Tuesday
Jul212009

113

I wanted to do at least one century before the end of this trip--yesterday was the day.

Did a straight run from Dickinson to Menoken (outside of Bismarck)...that's one hundred and thirteen miles to be exact.