Faun & Soldier - a return home on Veterans Day

Needed to tell you, Lindsay, about this incredibly cathartic experience I had last evening driving home about 10:30 p.m. up Alta Vista Drive, one left turn from my place on Pershing. A form was on the side of the road, seated, head up and alert: a faun (male or female??). Got out of the car, still running, and went to its side and reservedly stroked its back. My thought being that the deer might rear its head suddenly back and plunge its fangs into my arm. No such doing, the animal was quiet, its legs folded under its body.

My initial thought was whether it was injured. A broken leg, an open wound, I didn't know. I did see some matting that might be blood but it was not, then I thought she had injured her leg. I considered transporting her to a vet but at that late time, no luck, and there's no emergency vet hospital that I know of on the SC side of the Savannah River. So, I carefully lifted her to her hooves (feet?) and she stood, shakily, and then walked across the road, a little wobbly and made it to the woods beyond. I followed her and listened whether she collapsed in the brush. No sound. My hope is that she'll mend, perhaps with her mother's attention and have a great deer life.

On a Veterans Day note, I listened to an incredible piece by a Vietnam veteran who served in the country from 1970-71 and detailed his return visit. He kept hearing the Largo movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony (a haunting melody played by the English horn) and that's when it hit me. All it takes is music of great empathy and connectedness to turn on the lacrimal ducts, but the words were also so moving. He was sad, troubled and a stewardess saw his melancholia and sat beside him and hugged him. It truly was a gesture he treasured. The music that accompanies this piece is the Largo movement of Dvorak's Symphony #9 From the New World, a piece he wrote in the United States and based a lot on Negro spirituals.

Love you young lady, keep up the good work. Hope the calculus test went well.

dad