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.

website

Author Insight

The Sound and Fury of War

When I Listen to the Sound and Fury of War. From my time in war still the shock of how unprepared I was for the unnerving sound and fury of war. Had on the job training to get my “war nerves.” And all that came of that. And maybe the reason for no preparation to hear the sound and fury of war deeply and listened deeply. The Barbarism of war. And why we pray the sound and fury of war does not come our way. And if war, it stays over there. War is hell on earth. But not forever. So also, peace is heaven on earth. Forever. If we, planet earth humanity, want it. We do understand first time ever we the people of planet earth the power to quiet the sound and fury of war on planet earth. As far as I can tell humanity is leaning into the sound a fury of war and not away from it. And this scares me so. That is what I hear when I listen to the sound and fury of war.

Book Excerpt

A Bloodied Tapestry

From the beginning of my stay in Kon Tum, every day was periodically punctuated by machine gun and rifle fire. At night, the sounds came from all directions with frightening intensity. I was totally unprepared for the sound of war. Occasionally, there would be a quiet night, which was both unnerving and a blessing.

All that fall, there was war tension in the air. I remember one time, in the Officers Mess in MACV, over drinks officers heralded the coming of a “real fight.” One could feel this tension as a denseness in the air. It is a feeling like no other, a sense of death with every breath. There were many signs of it coming, like the gathering of ferocious storm.

I vividly recall visiting the MACV after a particularly noisy and terrifying night and seeing my first evidence of a rocket attack. The screeching sounds themselves were terrifying, but to have the sound and fury of war wake me from deep sleep, often alcohol-induced, in an instance, again and again and again, is hard to forget. Visitors from Saigon, another city under siege, left Kon Tum “shaking” even after only a 24-hour visit as I helped them on the plane. They had no real war nerves. The sounds of war were a fearsome thing. To survive as anyone who lived during that time did, you armored up: got your “war nerves.” You steeled your body and soul from sound and fury of war.

Buy

	Amazon
	Barnes&Noble
	GooglePlay
	Apple Books
	IndieBound
	Kobo

Share
Follow Unfollow
Comment
x
Comment on this Bubble

Your comment and a link to this bubble will also appear in your Facebook feed.

JanStephen James Cavanaugh

A Bloodied Tapestry

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

The Sound and Fury of War

Book Excerpt

A Bloodied Tapestry

Comment on this Bubble