#stan

I wanted to share the risks the digger in Afghanistan took every day. Whenever I could I joined patrols ‘outside the wire’, walking the same dusty tracks and fields as the ordinary soldiers. I did everything in my power to keep them alive, I failed. In that year I lost ten soldiers under my command, killed in action. I personally identified the remains of each of them, sending them home to their families. More than sixty of my soldiers were wounded, some horribly. ↗

— Major General John Cantwell

#ptsd #sorrow #war #family

Fo’ it be so clear to me now, with my family being black an white, that though we blacks have it very hard fo’ very long, we don’t own suffering. Abuse, slavery, injustice, an tribulation be part of human living. An if there be a question that be worth axing, rather than it be bout white or black, we might be wanting to ax how come it’s always us humans who be suffering an be mean to one another. We might want a be axing that instead. From: "Accidents of Birth Trilogy ↗

— Christina Carson

#love #race-relations #solving-human-problems #family

But, I believe," I continue, "I know what true love is - or what it should be." "What should it be?" Tristan asks, his voice soft now. "It should be a friendship and truly knowing who a person is, knowing his flaws and hopes and strengths and fears, knowing all of it. And admiring and caring for - loving the person because of those things. ↗

— Lisa Ann Sandell

#elaine-of-ascalot #friendship #gradual-love #lady-of-shallot #over-the-years

I turned to face Audrey, and everything I loved was right there in her eyes, the memories tangible: the schooldays and sleepovers, the cheap bottles of wine and sappy chick flicks. She was there for my mother’s drunken relapses, there to hold me until I fell asleep the first time the ex from Seattle hit me. It was all there, and my God, each memory was suddenly sacred and the sun rose and set upon it. ↗

— Rachael Wade

#closure #friendship #grief #loyalty #memories

Geography and mileage mean nothing. Separate is a single word that covers all distances that aren't together. ↗

— Rivera Sun

#friendship #geography #inspirational #literature-quotes #love

Before he'd met Anna, he'd thought he'd known what love was, thought he'd understood about friendship, romance, all o fit, but he hadn't - not at all. Until he'd held Anna in his arms, until he'd let her see his soul, until he'd heard her cry gently when he made love to her for the first time, he'd known nothing. ↗

— Gemma Malley

#knowledge #love #peter-pincent #resistance #surplus-anna

How would you feel about sharing your bed?" she asked. Tristan blinked. "Excuse me?" "He'd love to!" Gary said. Tristan shot him a look, "Good," said Ivy, failing to notice Gary's wink. "Ella can be a pillow hog, but all you have to do is roll over her. ↗

— Elizabeth Chandler

#gary #humor #ivy #kissed-by-an-angel #tristan

The manlier you are, the harder it is to understand what a woman wants: there is not a hint of female brain in you. ↗

— Criss Jami

#anatomy #biological #biology #brain #cognition

Thank you, Christopher Robin. You're the only one who seems to understand about tails. They don't think — that's what's the matter with some of these others. They've no imagination. A tail isn't a tail to them, it's just a Little Bit Extra at the back. ↗

— A.A. Milne

#understanding #imagination

What interests me, personally, is work which in some way, speaks the truth to power…I don’t think we speak the truth to power for power’s ear, but for the ear and the imagination of future generations, who would seek to live in a world free from the malign and self-serving influence of those who wield it. ↗

— Irvine Welsh

#political-commentary #politics #posterity #power #resistance