Unbreaking the Circle

Literature and music are replete with images of the circle as a signifier of completion and fullness. Steinbeck’s Preacher Casey as well as songwriters Joni Mitchell and Harry Chapin have utilized this metaphor, and the old hymn, “Will the circle be unbroken” points us to that someday when all will be made whole. Completely unbeknownst to me at the time, a circle began forming for me on July 6, 1967, when a fellow Air Force officer named Melvin Pollack climbed into his F-4 fighter jet for his 78th and final mission over the unfriendly skies of North Vietnam

Click to read more ...