Research Moment

Dude. I have moments. They are sometimes prompted by external things, and often prompted by internal things. But never while trying to skim articles to write an annotated bibliography right quick.

The "familial gaze," blah, blah, blah, "politics of memory," yadda yadda yadda, but good God, this hit my heart like a train:

"It is a worn, hand-colored image of a Vietnamese man, dressed in a military uniform, with a young girl beside him, both seriously regarding the camera. The note that accompanies it reads:

'Dear Sir, For twenty-two years I have carried your picture in my wallet. I was only eighteen years old that day we faced one another on that trail in Chu Lai, Vietnam. Why you didn't take my life, I will never know . . . Forgive me for taking your life, I was reacting the way I was trained, to kill V.C.'

The American soldier who had removed the photograph from the pocket of the Vietcong soldier he killed left it by Washington's Vietnam Memorial with a letter addressed to his victim."

Whoa. Okay. Get out my little pocket Kleenexes, get it together, and get back to work.