Waiting over here, for life to begin,
Still looking for the new thing,
And you were the sunshine heading my front-line,
I was alone, you were just around the corner from me
Pete Yorn 'Life on a Chain'
As that song came up on shuffle on my home stereo this morning, I opened my email to another letter from my wife Lori, who has been writing from Afghanistan, where she's been directing a show tour for Canadian Troops. Suddenly those lyrics, I'd heard a hundred times before, had a whole new meaning.
Now the letter, which Lori not only writes for me, but to you as well, followed by a video of that song.
March 3/10
We just spent the past two days in Kabul where we were all out of touch with the outside world. No phone, no internet.
Kabul brought it all together for me and helped me to understand what was really happening in Afghanistan.
The base in Kabul is basically headquarters and its the NATO base. Lots of high ranking officers from a lot of different countries.
I've never been somewhere so multi-national.
In Kandahar soldiers would describe the beauty of Afghanistan, something we never got to really see living inside the wire there.
In Kabul you could actually see it within the wire. Nothing could block out the awesome view of the mountains that divide Afghanistan from Pakistan.
We put on another amazing performance in Kabul (comedian Nikki Payne was on FIRE at this one!) and according to the officers we spoke with this morning it was unanimous that we beat the other two show tours that had recently passed through (not that there was any competition - The British and The Germans ;), so another win for Canada!
I'm proud of the shows we've done and the support (and distraction if only for one night) we've provided to the soldiers fighting in this very misunderstood war.
All that being said I am ECSTATIC to be out of Afghanistan and homeward bound.
It is difficult to be away from home. I realize that I’ve been living very much the auto-pilot version of me. It’s really tough to get attached to anything because everything on a military base is constantly changing, according to constantly changing priorities. The ONLY thing you can be sure of is meal time, which like all touring bands know, is a real beacon in your day.
As the tour director, the talent has looked to me for ‘when are we doing this, or that’, and I’ve come to realize that the only accurate answer is ‘when it happens’ because everything we do is (pardon the pun) a bit of a moving target.
We are now in the middle east where we'll be doing our final show this evening, to make up for one that was cancelled (I mentioned a couple letters ago that the show here, on the way to Afghanistan, was cancelled because a dignitary in the 'sheikdom' had passed and there was to be 3 days of mourning and no excessive noise or celebrations).
Tomorrow Germany and finally home to Canada. There's no drinking in the military for obvious reasons so our lay-over in Germany should be interesting after 9 days of military-style sobriety.
I never intended for my letters to become blog postings but I've come to really enjoy it and more than anything the amazing comments of support from the readers. While I was there supporting the soldiers you were here supporting me and it helped me get through the trip... so thank you.
I think I’m going to be a bit of a mess when I get home. I’ve been burying lots of feelings that I’m pretty sure are going to surface when I touch down in Canada.
I can’t wait to see you and Kaper, this weekend!!!! Ha!
Love you.
Lori,
xoxox