Over 4 years ago when Big Brother was just a few weeks old I took this photo of his birth father carrying him to the doctors for our 2 month check up. It was meant to be a photo for our private collection. However it had so much meaning that I shared it with Dave Murphy the owner of a support our troops Facebook group who is a huge military supporter.
It didn’t stop there. This picture spread as so many people could relate to or understand the meaning of this photo. Remembrance Day 2007 it inspired an artist in the Ottawa Citizen.
Today the original photo has surface on the internet again. Someone pointed out to me that my photo was being shared on the Thank a Soldier Facebook page. I went over to look and sure enough it was. Dave Murphy had used the photo in a blog post he wrote called Worth 1000 Words. Once again this photo was making its way around Facebook as everyone shared the moving photo.
The photo inspired a gentleman named Dan Gray to write a poem to go along with it. Which then inspired me to come write this post to share the photo, story and poem with you.
The Reason
By: Dan Gray
This is the reason I do it, this baby in my hand,
The reason I wear this uniform, the reason I serve my land,
The everyday freedoms of walking up and down the street,
not worried for a moment of any evil their may be,
I choose to fight the evil in countries far away,
To toil in sand and desert sun for many a day,
To see things unspeakable and face fear square on,
right now the only task I have is getting my baby home.
I want them to look up at me and put that smile on their face,
I want them to understand what I do when it calls me away,
but right now I want them for a few more minutes just to sleep,
till we get home to mother and a fine dinner to eat.
This baby is the reason for me to fight for peace,
so they never will have to do the things or see what I have seen,
So when they grow up there may be peace the world round,
now I may quiet so as not to cause my baby to make a sound.