A Bloodied Tapestry

Biographies & Memoirs

synopsis

Synopsis

Imagine you’re a young man growing up in the pastoral farmlands of Canada, surrounded by your devout parents and seven siblings. You trek 16 miles to church each Sunday to further devote your life to the religion that you believe to be your calling. Life is hard, but you’re at home and alive. Then, like a shot from destiny, everything changes. You find yourself in South Vietnam in the middle of war, attempting to make sense and reconcile the faith and morality from the only world you’ve ever known with this all-encompassing hell of inhumanity and senselessness. This is the disconcerting experience that author JanStephen James Cavanaugh recounts in A Bloodied Tapestry.

In this autobiographical historical account, Jan takes readers through the time he served as a civilian volunteer in the Vietnam War and shows how this experience altered the trajectory of his life forever. Walk with Jan as he comes to grips with the realities of war, and how injustice and violence betray our better judgements.

Much has been written about the Vietnam War; however, this book is not a retrospect on the utter inhumanity and senselessness of war because—sadly—war continues. Alternatively, Cavanaugh extols lessons and observations about the war that may finally reach our collective consciousness and compel meaningful and noticeable change. Much more insight is needed as we fumble our way toward attempting to find a peaceful way to exist together. Cavanaugh still believes we can make the choice to let go of the injustice and ego that create war. He is still hopeful that together we can make the collective choice to turn our backs on war so we may progress and find greater meaning and compassion in our existence. This pursuit is what motivates Cavanaugh and inspired him to revisit this hell, so that we may finally experience the harmony that comes from humanity living in an age of peace.

Sometimes graphic, oftentimes uplifting, A Bloodied Tapestry is a personal account of one man’s immutable beliefs as they are challenged to the very core and his resolution to survive for a greater purpose.

bio

Author Biography

JanStephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. was born in Canada to a large, very religious family. His dream of the priesthood led him to the US, but, after being turned away from this role by the Catholic Church, he turned his attention to volunteering and found himself stationed in South Vietnam, right in the middle of the Vietnam War. After experiencing the hell of war first-hand as a civilian, Jan returned to the states, and went on to become a professor, psychologist, global business consultant, and surprisingly, a Class A licensed big rig driver. With a Ph.D. in Human Development from Penn State, Cavanaugh has dedicated his life to a deep study of the human psyche with the mission of facilitating ways to encourage the healthy growth of our collective bodies, minds, and souls.

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Author Insight

Me And The Stripper

I learned from a group of women who read my book … apparently the word is out, the sexy chapter is last … and they all laughed. Apparently from a woman’s point of view that is the place to start. I live in a retirement community that also has a lot of retired nuns. Apparently one of the nuns wants to read it, and my friends wondered about that. I flashed back to the time held up in hotel downtown Saigon for weeks during Tet 68 (nothing to do but party to drown the noise of war) … if what I saw be a measure of nuns at play, nothing to shock that crew. But this did get me wondering, so that I start out in better light, maybe to recommend to nuns, or anyone, to start with Sr. Mary McD.'s recommendation for graduate school at the very back of the book. I do recommend reading the story from the beginning that my whole story can be seen in context. And in me in truth I felt a little saner for that interaction … Eros not Thanatos, at least for a brief moment a blessing.

Book Excerpt

A Bloodied Tapestry

Third: Me and the stripper. We were seated at a table that was ring side to the floor show. It was a huge crowd of cheering men and women watching singers and dancers of various performances; the noise was loud. And then came out a surprise to me and Mike. We did not know that the top evening entertaining in Hong Kong was strip tease. Its prominence was a surprise to my puritanical roots.

I watched with due respect and delight as the stripper stripped to fully naked as she erotically danced the stage. I remember her slight body being well formed. Long black hair, very white skin. Very red lips. The erotic ideal. And coming near us on the edge of the stage, she in a split second danced over to Mike. She wrapped herself around him in a most inviting way. I could see his surprise. The crowd began roaring their delight. For me, it always was whenever we were in a bar for western food and a beer that girls talked to me. But bar girls always crowded around him, blond, blued-eyed, and handsome; me, blue eyes, but otherwise dark, reddish, and skinny. Often greeted with “ugly American,” referring to my looks as I walked the streets. Maybe sometimes the other meaning as well. So, I thought it normal she chose him as her toy.

I relaxed to enjoy Mike’s uncomfortableness as the crowd roared its approval as she moved in sexual ways. Then, as I remember even now in an instant, she leapt off him, and before I could blink, leapt onto my lap. I can still feel the suddenness of her body up against me. With some waves of her hands around my face, she looked me in the eye. I was transfixed. And she grabbed my glasses, quick as a wink. Startled, I can still feel them slipping from my face. After some suggestive moves around my body, she got up and danced backward to the stage, inviting me to follow, with her fingers and lips beckoning me. Next, she ran up on the stage, waving about my glasses, and then proceeded to do a dance with some naughty moves…all of which was a haze to me sitting there stunned. I was a long way from home and not really prepared to play the stud. The crowd was roaring.

Next, I remember that I see her lying on the floor center stage,

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JanStephen James Cavanaugh

A Bloodied Tapestry

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Me And The Stripper

Book Excerpt

A Bloodied Tapestry

Comment on this Bubble