When my father, Odysseus, and his men sailed off to the Trojan War, they were confident their gods favored a quick victory. Instead, the siege of Troy lasted ten years. After Troy fell, the survivors made their way home to Sparta, Mycenae, Pylos, and elsewhere in the ancient Peloponnese. Neither my father nor any of his troops arrived home with the rest. We waited for years as the news grew worse. Odysseus was dead, we were told,or imprisoned, or, worst yet, he had married another woman and abandoned my mother Penelope, my brother Telemachus, and me.


If he is alive somewhere, his thoughts may wander to Penelope and Telemachus, but he won’t be thinking of me. I am the daughter he doesn’t know exists. Odysseus went off to the Trojan War when his son, Telemachus, was barely old enough to walk. His wife, Penelope, was a teenage bride, and is now a young wife, mother, and queen who has to try to rule Ithaca without him.


I was born seven months after he left. I am a hero’s daughter and a princess of his realm, but I have lived my entire life without a father. I’m nineteen now, and still waiting.


All over the world, and throughout history children grow up as I have. This website will focus on the children of those men and women who have gone off to fight America's wars, and provide information and resources for all who care about military families and want to help.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Win-Win-Win

This seems like a nice win-win-win for the holidays. Atlantic Beach Children for Peace (pictured to the right) will present the original musical "Christmas Glee" this weekend. The price of admission? An unwrapped toy for a child age one to fourteen for a gift giveaway at the local community center. Many at the giveaway are children of active military members in the local area.
The musical is written, directed, and produced by Eve Beardall, who wrote an original song "Christmas by the Sea," especially for it.
It must be complicated for military parents this time of year. There are a lot of giveaways for military children, especially around the holidays and the start of school. I sometimes wonder what the recipients and their parents really feel about this, because in our culture direct charity of this sort is difficult to accept. It creates a feeling of inequality between the donor and the recipient, and though there may be financial inequality, we all want to feel equal in other ways. How does it feel to be in the midst of other people’s plenty, and be treated as if they think you wouldn’t have any of it without them? Toys are great, but not if they come with even a hint of pity or condescension. It’s a rare person who is truly comfortable with others feeling sorry for him or her.
Hopefully these toy giveaways are presented in the spirit of saying thank you, that the parents and children feel as if they are being repaid for services they have performed. That's one of the reasons I like the Atlantic Beach Children for Peace idea. These children are performing a service to repay a service. Everybody wins--the performers because they get to do something they love, the audience, because they get to enjoy the show, and the military children, who will have something under the tree that shows that kids feel a bond with kids, and that when we appreciate each other through gifts of all sorts, whether it’s a song, or an action figure, or a parent off at war, everyone comes out the better for it.
Posted by About AART at 7:38 AM

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