The Meaning of a Son

I don’t know why I havent been writing.  Trust me there has been plenty going on and plenty to write about but I just havent had that feeling like I needed to write.  It has been a liberating experience to bare my soul and then take some time to just breathe and live life.  Busy would be an understatement over the last two quarters of the year, in fact I don’t think I will be home during the week until Christmas.  I have the lovely job of chasing revenue for “the man” (Corporate America).  I am taking a much-needed break the first week of October to go out to Seattle and just catch my breath.  I am making the much-needed trek out to the northwest alone and I kinda like that.  I am pretty sure Seattle is one of the last places I havent been in the US.  I need this, I need some time away from Nashville to just unwind. 

I am a pretty friendly guy I guess but if you saw me in an airport you wouldn’t know it.  This is my time…iPod, headphones on wearing jeans, one of the 4 t-shirts I own and slip-on chucks.  I am not the idea of corporate America and I kinda like that.  All if this to say I usually don’t engage in that many conversations with the person sitting next to me on the plane, unless you happen to be Frida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire girl) and yes that happened.   I am not trying to be rude and most people get it and they don’t really want to talk either.  I am comfortable in this world, my world.  I spend so much of the week talking and listening that I need some time just for me.

I took an earlier flight home today, standby and got the last seat left on the flight from Greenville, SC to Atlanta.  I had already planned to do the usual, headphones on take my seat and relax.  I was ambushed before I even had the chance by a fifty something woman with a deep southern, south carolina accent.  I wont lie, all I wanted to do was push play and close my eyes. 

I didn’t push play because I never had the chance.  As soon as she sat down she reached her hand out and said, “Hey I’m Tammie.”  I looked at her for a moment and there was something inside of me that said this could go either way.   I could be doing a whole lot of nodding and smiling so much so that my face would be hurting at the end of the flight.  I will proceed to tell you that the moment that I reached my hand out to shake hers and as soon as I met hers I felt something inside of me that changed.  

Yes, there was some small talk involved, she was scared as hell to fly and I told her don’t worry I do this every week and she smiled.  I asked her where she was going and she simply said, “Baghdad.”

Tammie Davenport of Anderson, South Carolina is a Gold Star Mother.  She was going to Baghdad on a humanitarian mission to help the women of Iraq whose husbands have been killed by the Taliban.  She is a Gold Star Mother because her son Jim, a United States Marine was killed in action by an IED four years ago this Thanksgiving day at twenty years old. 

Tammie was one of the most forgiving and loving people I have ever talked too.  She lost a son in war, yet she was going to the place where he son was taken from her and she was going to help the people of that country.  I havent seen so much humility from one human being in an hour time frame and I don’t know if I ever will.  I couldn’t speak, I didn’t want to.  I wanted to hear her talk, I listened to her describe her son and how much she still loves him to this day.  I listened to her talk about through all of the pain she has come to the conclusion that she doesn’t want to live life angry.  So many people have lost friends, loved ones, but this is the first time I have really sat down and talked with someone who is affected at the highest level.  Tammie, is on her way to Baghdad now and I am about to jump on my own flight home.  I will go back and live my life and she will do the same, a broken one that may never be repaired if she wasnt such a fighter and able to forgive.   Think of her this weekend as she has a memorial service near the spot where her son was taken from her.  Thanks Tammie…and to your son Jim who gave his life for our country.  I pray I never forget that plane ride home.