While I’ve had my head off in the galaxy far, far away, a couple of real-life dramas have developed much closer to home.
First of all, I’ve recently learned that a good friend from my high school and college years who is now in the military has been posted to Iraq. He’ll be serving as an operations officer at a supply depot somewhere north of Baghdad, which sounds to my admittedly non-military ear like a prime target for insurgent attacks. Needless to say, I am worried for my friend’s safety, and I’m having a hard time imagining that the gentle boy with whom I used to talk about Star Trek and Dr. Who is now walking around a desert war-zone in a suit of body armor. Especially since he’s actually in the Navy and has spent most of the last fifteen years on nuclear submarines a mile underwater. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that he’d end up on the ground somewhere, but apparently the Joint Chiefs operate by a logic I don’t understand.

For the record, I am politically opposed to the war for reasons I don’t wish to go into right now. But that doesn’t stop me from hoping for the best possible outcome over there and that all the men and women who are far from home will soon be back with their friends and families, alive and intact.

My best wishes also go out to another old friend, a wonderful woman who has spent years trying to make a difficult relationship work and who has now decided that it’s time for her and her daughter to find a better way to live. I haven’t heard from her in a while, and I want to let her know, if she’s reading this, that I hope she’s okay.