The song (by Sabaton) came on as I was heading to work this Thursday, and I found myself tearing up. It’s the first time in a few years that I heard it and it hit differently. I’ve got relatives and friends of friends in active duty.

Not anyone I’m in touch with, but I’ve met them, and I hear of them. The price of a mile is the suffering and lives of them, their friends, and so many other young men.

One of my bubbles has been burst by what’s happening in Ukraine & Israel. War is no longer history, news and reports. It has become a lot more real to me, and it’s something I could end up being a part of.

This feels like a rather serious topic for a community called casual conversation, but feel free to share your thoughts on this, or a “bubble bursting” moment of your own.

  • I try to remind myself that the perpetrators of these horrors are long gone.

    For some value of “long” I guess.

    Some of the most notorious perpetrators of Japan’s war crimes died in my lifetime. Hirohito died, for example, when I was 23.