Author: David Robinson, Lanesborough
To the editor:
That was fun, wasn’t it? The flags and fireworks, the beer and barbecues, the parades and picnics, and everybody’s a patriot for a rollicking weekend. Then we fold the flags, return the empties and get our nickels back, and it’s same-old time again.
Did we forget anything? Yes, we did. We forgot those who cannot forget, the men and women who fought for us and now fight for a same-old that they will never know again.
No, don’t turn the page. You need to see this. We all do. Go down to Shakespeare & Company in Lenox and meet one of those people. She’s Jess, the lead character in a play called “Ugly Lies the Bone.” And yes, she’s ugly, made up as a burn victim so expertly that a woman veteran in the audience said she could almost smell the burns.
Surprisingly, it’s a funny play. A stay-at-home boyfriend says “IUD” instead of “IED;” “That’s birth control,” Jess snorts. And the audience guffaws. We laugh a lot, and the people at Shakespeare & Company are experts at making us do it.
We watch Christianna Nelson play Jess — no, become Jess — as she struggles to find a life that fits, now that the old one has been blown to shreds. And then we go home, knowing a lot more about the Fourth of July than we did before. It will never be same-old again.
David Robinson, Lanesborough
Original Article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/letters/ci_30124915/letter-ugly-lies-bone-brings-focus-veterans
