Before you read this, open your medicine cabinet and gloss over it. Done? Okay, now run to your living room and count your DVD’s. Back again? Now take a look in your pantry. Check. Now think about where it all came from - drug stores, superstores, grocery stores. Maybe you couldn’t find the exact product you were looking for, so you walked a couple of blocks and boom, there it was: your favorite brand of roll-on, non-flakey, extra-protection, shower fresh-scented deodorant. Whew, because you definitely could not live without it. I know, I’m the same way.
Now plop yourself in the mountains of Afghanistan. Sure you are in the US Armed Forces but you are still in Afghanistan. Where is all the stuff? The tissues with lotion, the cheese puffs with real cheddar, the movies with George Clooney. Good luck finding any of it.
Am I the only one who really didn’t give this serious thought? The first time someone mentioned in one of the interviews I was doing for these episodes that they were sending soldiers socks, I thought, socks? But think of the places where we get all of this stuff for ourselves. There is no megastore in the mountains of Afghanistan. So where is this stuff going to come from if not from us?
It is one thing to not be able to wrap my head around the reality of war, but I would have to be a complete space cadet to not comprehend what it might feel like not to have access to such basic necessities. So, think of a soldier as your neighbor. You’re going out to the store and you ask your neighbor if they need anything. Imagine that each time, your neighbor says “yes” about one item. Pick it up, put it in a box and at the end of the month, ship it off to an organization that sends care packages. Because, after all, we do care.
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