Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Something Beautiful Podcast - recently discussing difficult issues

Something Beautiful podcast logo

Every now and again I dip into the Something Beautiful podcast feed. “Stories worth talking about” is the apt strap line for the audio series.

The two part interview [click on the links to listen] by Jonathan Blundell with US army veteran Luke Harms was fascinating listening during recent late night shopping and while making tonight’s dinner.

He explains the emotional and family impact of a six month tour in Iraq followed by an extended one year tour in Afghanistan, and a voluntary return to cover the same duties for eighteen months as a civilian contractor.

The second part was the most captivating as Luke described the disjoint between religion – and even the message of army chaplains – and his day to day work targeting enemy personnel. While perhaps not surprising, it was still disturbing to realise that he couldn’t match his day job with his faith while on tour with the army. Feeling that you have to turn your back on faith in order to complete your job is a big step.

Mentally it hooked in two other recent trains of though: an article on the BBC News website about a retired US Army sniper who killed in excess of 250 people; and the merciless killings at the centre of Tom Clancy’s novel Dead or Alive.

Luke Harms raises difficult issues which don’t come with trite answers. Thought-provoking listening from the folks at Something Beautiful.

3 comments:

Jonathan Blundell said...

Thanks so much for the post and your review. Really appreciate your feedback!

Alan in Belfast (Alan Meban) said...

It was engaging and difficult. Well worth the listen. Thanks for finding Luke and interviewing him.

weareallghosts said...

Hey Alan... thanks for listening, matey... it is appreciated. Luke's interview was a belter.

Bless you

Thomas