Seat 17 E

Seat 17 E
Originally uploaded by jonnyups.

I'm on the plane, flying home from Stockton, CA. In front of me, a man
gets on the plane and is only left with a middle seat. He sits down and
begins to make small talk with the men on either side of him.

"I'm going back to San Diego after visiting my brother in Sacramento. I
am getting deployed to Iraq this week."

Poor guy, one last flight and he's stuck in the middle seat. I was lucky
enough to score the last aisle seat on the plane, thank you very much.
As we're ascending, I see the woman on my right holding one of those
tiny 'Jesus' pamphlets. To be very honest, those things drive me crazy.
You find them on your table at Starbucks, or all over the halls of your
college campus and they just get thrown away.

As we reached cruising altitude, the woman leans forward to the crack in
the seat and says, "Excuse me sir, I heard you're going to Iraq this
week. Please read this, it could be the most important thing you'll ever
read." Ballsy, I know. For anybody who's ever believed in something
(that could potentially sound crazy to others) enough to share it, knows
that sharing is hard.

The soldier politely said thank you, and took the mini-pamphlet from
her.

Now this next part is for everybody. If you're a pray-er, a vibe-sender,
good-thinker, well-wisher, war opposer, war supporter, brother, sister,
friend human...do me a favor...think/pray/vibe away for this soldier. He
is going to a volitile place filled with violence, fear, uncertainty and
every other frightening emotion available. This may be his last month
alive, he could be the next hero to come out of this war, he could be
your cousin or brother.

Dislike our government, or whatever you like, but these soldiers are
just doing their job.

Now I have landed in San Diego. Tired from a very long and enjoyable
weekend, I look forward to sleeping in my bed, in my new place. Have a
great week, I'll try to update again by the weekend. Remember this
soldier this week.
--
-jon
sent from my phone, homie.