A tale told by an idiot

[AndyS]

Korea. Vietnam. Desert Storm. Enduring Freedom. Does Afghanistan even have a name or does it, like Vietnam, suffice as a definition of futility?

I'm tired. I'm sad. I'm weary of the repeated memories. New talking heads telling the same story about different people in different countries in different wars. Why don't we ever learn?

I did not serve in Vietnam but I served with the people who did. I saw soldiers dive under a table in a pizza joint because somebody took a flash picture. I was slugged in the jaw when I woke a fellow soldier too abruptly. I was there when a fellow dropped to the floor and took cover in a shopping mall for no apparent reason. My young wife helped with the makeup to cover the bruises given a wife by the night terrors of her husband.

And it don't mean a mother fucking thing.

All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

And it don't mean a mother fucking thing.

Not one mother fucking thing.

[elleng]

1. And then is heard no more: it is a tale. Told by an idiot, full of

sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

[AndyS]

4. Not one mother fucking thing. All for nothing.

The blood the money the lives lost and ruined and families broken.

All for not one thing.

[momta]

2. The only Shakespeare I've ever memorized.

[marble falls]

3. It don't mean nothing, it don't mean a thing.

[Diamond_Dog]

5. Amen, brother.

[Leith]

6. This thread reminded me of music that most of us haven't thought of in decades

The song Flesh Failures from the musical Hair. It just seems to fit my mood today.

We starve, look at one another short of breath
Walking proudly in our winter coats
Wearing smells from laboratories
Facing a dying nation of moving paper fantasy
Listening for the new told lies
With supreme visions of lonely tunes
Somewhere, inside something , there is a rush of greatness
Who knows what stands in front of our lives
I fashion my future on films in space
Silence tells me secretly ev'rything, ev'rything
Singing my space songs on a spiderweb star
"Life is around you and in you"
Answer for Timothy Leary, deary
Let the sun shine
Let The sunshine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine
Let The sunshine in
The sun shine in