There was a time when I understood everything, but I was young then. Now I'm no longer young, and I understand very little. If nothing else, time has given me an appreciation of my ignorance. But most of all, time has given me the knowledge that I am mortal. And that alone is of great comfort to me.
When I was a young man, just out of high school, I went off to a war in a place called Vietnam. For me, just as it was for many others, it was all a great adventure. In my mind, I was going to return home a hero. Those thoughts, however, lasted only a short while. I soon discovered that war was neither an adventure nor was it even close to being great. Instead of wanting to returning home a hero, I wanted only to return home in one piece. I did learn that being a hero is just a matter of seconds.
