22 Comments

Cori, this is simply brilliant...a deliniation of the madness of the human condition, accompanied by the humble wheelbarrow. Humans are such a conundrum...highly intelligent and creative and crafty...and too often use this for evil. I have two family members who died in war, one in WW2 during D-Day and buried in Normandy, and one, an older brother who was drafted in 1968 and died in Vietnam. The Vietnam War shattered my own life, not only because of my brother's needless death but for the sheer staggering arrogance. This is why Dwight Eisenhower warned the US about the military industrial complex. I am not naive, I know the fallen nature of humans...and why we desperately need God. But...God also give us free will and we all too often choose stupidity. I spent 35 yrs in rebellion and sorrow and even now, am picking up the pieces in my early 70's. Keep writing, Cori, you have a true gift. Wendy

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Thank you kindly Wendy. It surely took a little piece of my heart to write it. All of humanity has lost so much to war. It’s the playground of madmen.

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Cori, I agree completely. Sometimes I get so discouraged and want to give up...with the despair and the darkness hovering over me...but God is always there and God always helps me, bit by bit, day by day. I could not do it without Him and His Son!

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Sounds like we could use more Josephs.

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Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one. Thanks for sharing this story!

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I’m glad you liked it Jenn. Joseph was a very interesting fellow.

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Very well said

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Thank you I appreciate your kindness.

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Something so simple yet effective in wartime. Sigh. Wonderful piece.

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Your sigh epitomizes how I felt once I started writing. Thank you so much for joining the discussion.

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Interesting article. A wheelbarrow makes sense, but I never thought of it. I also could be used for a lot of things including caring wounded.

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Thank you for joining the discussion Paul. Joe mentions that in his interview. It’s simply astonishing how useful it is and I’d wager that every family with a home has one for that reason.

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I'd share a foxhole with ol Big Mac. It's guys like that who really help everyone get through a tough time. As a vet myself, I sure wish I'd have had a wheelbarrow plenty of times!

Thanks for sharing, Cori!

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Thank you for joining the discussion on this. It cut me up some - like a knife, not like comedy. Not gonna lie, I’m still reeling a little bit.

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I remember back in the early 2000’s billions of dollars just up snd vanished in Iraq under Paul Bremer’s leadership. It was discovered the money had been passed around Iraq using wheelbarrows to deliver it to pay for this and that and the other things. You can’t find anything on that story today!

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Joe mentioned how disorganized the leadership of the companies were when he was there. He said in their first convoy an entire huge truck filled with hundreds of guns and all their ammunition simply disappeared from their convoy during transport. Because he couldn’t conceive of that kind of negligence, he speculated that some of the leaders had divided sympathies. What a terrible, terrible situation.

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It’s great to hear from you Charlotte. I find this interesting because I was only able to find 3 decent images of wheelbarrows in war settings online and of those, 2 were proprietary and the last had resolution issues, hence the old wooden one as portrait in my last frame. It’s staggering to realize that if I include all the wars in the wiki table vs those since 1800 the number of dead is 390 million and wiki makes a point to say that ranges are provided because of erased, missing, and misrepresented data.

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This was my first read of any of your posts. I feel like a miner that has just found a huge gemstone. Thanks.

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Great read. Unfortunately what needs to be done to prevent war, is as soon as we see the “leaders” talking about war, wtp kill them. It’s simple really. Target the leadership that has no problem watching young men die for them.

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Yes peace should be upheld by making war illegal and violators should answer for it

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You continue to amze me with your witty, insightful prose Vanessa.

KILLING IT!!!!

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Thanks sis! I love you and miss you!

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