James O'Shea

The stories in From the Land of Genesis had a profound effect on me. Service members returning to the US from foreign wars are challenged to connect on a deeper level with their friends back home, we civilians who can never truly understand what our soldiers have experienced and endured. The challenge to connect back home cuts both ways for our veterans. No matter how many gruesome war stories we, the civilians, might hear, we'll never truly understand what is was like to live through those stories, and to come home with those experiences seared into our hearts and minds. And our veterans will naturally struggle to effectively communicate the effect that those experiences have had on them. Many suffer along with PTSD. We all need to support our veterans, to be there for them, to meet them where they are. To listen and just be there for them. Stephen O'Shea's stories bring that home in a profound way.