Federal Service YES!!// The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

I don't troll World Net Daily often, but I saw this article and was jumping up and down happy!  There is nothing wrong with serving our great country, whether it be in uniform or in a public service role.  I think more people will think twice about war if their children may have to serve!  

There is no other place I'd rather be than OCONUS sitting behind a M2 or 249B, but I still want people to think twice about what they are doing with our most precious recource.  Here is a great quote about war that I hold dear to my heart! 

A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers. All you have to do is hold your first dying soldier in your arms and have that terribly futile feeling that his life is flowing out and you can't do anything about it. Then you understand the horror of war. Any soldier woth his salt should be antiwar. And still, there are things worth fighting for. - GEN H. Norman Schwarzkopf

I had a great running week last week with 59.7 miles and looking to get at least 50 this week too.  Today was so muggy that my 8 mile run this morning took me almost 80 minutes.  I had to stop and walk some.  Maybe I'll feel better tonight when I get a few more miles. 

I just finished another great book by Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood here is my Amazon review along with the great poem about the Longest Mile: 

Margaret did it again and in stunning fashion. I recently read Handmaid's Tale and thought it would be tough to beat that story, but this one did it hands down.

I'm a huge fan of dystopias, especially post modern stories that could easily be true.

The concept took our current green movement and wove it into the foundation for most of the main characters. Interwoven into this story Margaret introduces you into a world where corporations have taken over world governance and profits/greed fuel the engines of the world.

As one can expect an unregulated world devoid of a moral thread leads corporations to seek the ultimate goal of an immortal being. They get close, but at a huge cost to nearly every species. The waterless flood is the result of messing with the genes and it effectively cleanses the earth.

The ending leaves you wondering if the final voices are of other humans or if the last human's ears hear the singing of the new breed that inherits the Earth.

I'm also an ultra-runner and found this quote in the book and could not resist keeping this one on the tip of my tongue, even though in the book it refers to something much darker than the final miles of an 100 mile race, so unless you have been down that road you will wonder why I made the connection:

The Longest Mile

The last mile is the longest mile-
'Tis then we weaken;
We lose the strength to run the race,
We doubt Hope's beacon.

Shall we turn back from this dark Road,
Footsore and weary,
When deep Despair has drained our Faith,
And all seems dreary?

Shall we give up the narrow path,
The plodding byway-
Chose Swift transport and false delight:
Destruction's highway?

Shall Enemies erase our life,
Our Message bury?
And shall they quench in war and strife
The torch we carry?

Take heart, oh dusty Travellers:
Though you may falter,
Though you be felled along the way,
You'll reach the Altar.

Race on, race on, though eyes grow dim,
And faint the Chorus;
God gives us Nature's green applause-
Such will restore us.

For in the effort is the Goal,
'Tis thus we're treasured:
He knows us by our Pilgrim Soul-
'Tis thus we're measured.

From The God's Gardeners Oral Hymnbook

All in all I recommend this book fully and would put it on par with the likes of Brave New World, 1984, The Road, and Fahrenheit 451.