Kelly Smith Weblog Aficionado: Just a guy vs. Life

The things we take for granted...

I stayed home with my daughter today because she was a little under the weather. I played with her most of the day and only took time to watch TV while she was napping. I was watching The Learning Channel and saw a personal story about a 9 year old little girl that was born with a cleft face. She had been subjected to surgery upon surgery and was still disfigured. On top of all of that, the poor little girl had been born addicted to cocaine and her mother abandoned her at the hospital. It showed one of her operations from start to finish, and it profiled her amazing courage. Because of her condition much of the interview was subtitled as it was difficult to understand her. I realized at that moment how beautiful the little girl's spirit was, and how blessed I was to have a baby who will not have to undergo that ordeal. I looked at Alex and marveled at her perfect little nose, flawlessly smooth skin, and chubby cheeks. I remember that before she was born I only worried once or twice about her having a birth defect, but I don't recall even worrying about that on the day she was born. I suppose I took God's gift for granted. I suppose we all do that in one way or another.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Being an Officer...a Black one.....is sometimes hard. [Howard Rollins from "A Soldier's Story"] Sometimes being an Officer is difficult....not because of hard tasks, short timelines, or all of the worries involved in the care of your Soldier's, but the aura of professionalism and objectivity that you must display at all times. There have been many times that I have wanted to make a comment, yell, cuss at someone, or otherwise let my personal feelings be known about a subject, but unfortunately I could not because of my position. Let me tell you about two incidents that bothered me in particular. I was in Dallas Ft. Worth airport waiting to catch a flight on the last leg of my TDY trip to help a returning unit at Ft. Sill. As I went to my gate, I saw 4 Sailors in their black uniforms gathered at the gate...one was large and white, the other three were black. There was very little room, and many of them were standing intermingled with civilian airline passengers...

Happy 231st Birthday to the U.S. Army! Happy Birthday to the greatest military fighting force that the world has ever known. I will be toasting tonight with dinner! I'll post a picture, it is a nice evening so I may have to eat on the deck tonight. Hooah! I am enjoying myself from now until the 27th. I am on Leave! Of course my decadence will be interrupted by having all four of my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow. So, I may need to toast three or four times tonight. Hooah!

Strom Thurmond is dead... Many people are observing the passing of Strom Thurmond with mixed feelings. A lot of my friends seem to be rejoicing as if an evil dictator has been deposed. If we look at his past words and actions, it is easy to see why some blacks may not think too fondly of Strom Thurmond. I am not sure what to think, actually. As a Christian, I know it is not good to harbor hate for anyone, no matter how reprehensible their behavior has been in the past. I was reading a Slate article about him, and they spoke about how no official apology for his past behavior was ever rendered. However, there seemed to be an "unspoken" apology that his fellow conservatives voiced for him over and over. What was once an unspoken rumor of his biracial daughter has come to light in news services as well. It would seem that his past disdain, or need for seperation from the black race was not quite so urgent at one point in time. He fathered a child with a black ho...