Bad 4th of July

Here we are with another old letter and one of the letters I want to get off my hard drive.

I went about describing the events of my life as a reporter in the hope that it would make a man’s life better only to have him turn into a toxic force in my life.

If anything is true it’s that we should watch who we call friends.

7^th July 2007 

Dear (Soldier deployed in Iraq),

The fourth of July was my first day off in two months. That probably doesn’t mean much given what you are going through, my friend, but it means little to me as well. I spent it cleaning the house. That’s a funny thing to do when you think of it, but I have not learned to clean as I go. I tried tracing back the moments to find when I started such bad habits. Probably when they started tearing up my home. Yes, I think that was it, it’s hard to think of cleaning a thing that is broken.

That is a point you probably can’t see. One of the strange truths of life is how much can change with a point of view. As a young man I was taught to value certain things, and then I was made to watch as they were destroyed in front of my eyes. Now I have a difficult problem to solve. Well, without suffering what is joy?

We have lost another guard. He was a small man. I think that it’s better for him because he got something closer to home. We gained one more guard, an older man who was removed from this post once for getting too chummy with the employees. He doesn’t look like he’s going to last but that’s no concern. Whatever comes with the new day will come and there is nothing I can do about such things.

I filled out my federal application for student aid. I don’t think I’ll get anything out of it, but then what can one do to change what they have made? If I do get anything out of the government then I’ll try to put in less hours because this and school are too much. Funny how you need the good job to get your degree, but the point of the degree is to get a good job.

Come to think of it I wrote another one act I can show you. I’ll put it in the envelope with this letter. I call it “Welcome to the Gurd Shack” I’m not going to include the first page, as that might be too heavy for one stamp. If it gets to you with more than one stamp on it then they sent it back to me.  

“A Mind Bending” Is coming along. It looks like it will turn out to be a full length play two male, three female, three voices. Funny thing is it’s almost the same story as “House Broken” only the events are totally different. It’s a play that is violent and dark giving a different perspective of the human mind. 

Anyway, old friend, don’t let the heat get to you,

Richard Leland Neal