Two Seats Over

Sadly we have lost another soldier. Right now I'm in Sooke, BC, even further removed from Afghanistan, physically speaking, than when I'm at home. On the flight out here there was a soldier just a couple seats away from me. Generally Canadian Forces travel in green - at least when I've seen them out and about, this guy was in khaki though. I wondered where he had been, was he coming back from the great Over There. I don't know. The people we lose are for the most part only as close as another anonymous air traveler. I suppose that depersonalizes war, we can feel bad for a soldier when they die, but we are not left with that dull ache that their families will probably never fully exorcise. Instead we see our men and women in uniform as, at best, someone in the same general vicinity as we are.