|
|
El Paso Times (TX)
|
El Paso Times (TX)
January 23, 2008
Soldier-writer finds his voice in Iraq desert
Author: Victor R. Martinez / El Paso Times
Section: Lifestyle
Estimated printed pages: 4
Article Text:
Sgt. Brian Jopp titled his book "Reconciled in Iraq," an introspective journey into life and humanity.
From the time he was very young, Kathy Jopp knew her son was a free thinker.
From the clothes he wore in kindergarten to the stands he would take for fellow students, her son -- Army Sgt. Brian Jopp -- has always done things his way.
"In kindergarten, when I took him shopping for some clothes, he wanted buckle overalls," Kathy Jopp said in a telephone interview from her home in Delano, Minn. "I told him it wasn't in style and everybody would be wearing pull-up pants and shirts. He would cross his arms and be stubborn and say, no, he was going to wear buckle overalls."
Kathy Jopp bought her son three pairs of those buckle overalls and, gosh darn it, Brian wore them to school.
"He was the only kid to have buckle overalls, and he didn't care because he was doing his own thing," his mother said. "He doesn't care what other people do. He is very set in his mind."
Doing his best to do what is right, the former construction worker and secondary English teacher spent much of his 15-month tour in Iraq in Mosul, where he began to question his life, belief systems, God, his government leaders and even humanity itself.
During that time, the soldier wrote down his thoughts and began to discover and embrace his life's purpose -- to improve humanity by encouraging all people to find their own truth.
"He firmly believes that the only way to be successful and happy is to make sure your fellow man is treated the same as you would treat yourself, and he lives up to that," Kathy Jopp said.
Brian Jopp's introspective journey into life and humanity can be found in "Reconciled in Iraq" (iUniverse, 2007), the book he wrote and published in Iraq.
"On one side you have all these terrible things happening (in Iraq), and on the other side, I see what the true essence of life is," Jopp said. "It's kind of like looking back on my whole life while I'm sitting in the middle of a war and coming up with answers because all these dots seemed so randomly connected. But I can see a perfectly clear path now. It's sort of like being enlightened."
Living life to its fullest is hardly a new concept, but Jopp takes it a step further.
"It's recognizing that the things that people think are important are not really that important," he said. "It's more important that I share an ice-cream cone with my daughter than it is that I worry about paying my electric bill because eventually that electric bill is going to get paid."
 Jopp, who lives in Horizon City with wife, Marnie, and daughters Ava, 1, and Annika, 4, said people should do positive things for others just for the sake of doing them.
"The highest level I came up with is when you do something for somebody else without any real motivation to get anything in return," he said.
Chris Henry, Jopp's high-school and college friend, said he and Jopp talked about this many times while growing up.
"The book is his interpretation on who he is and how he got to where he is today," Henry said. "The stuff that we went through, the stuff that he has seen, the stuff that he has done and the things that he has realized after everything has been done."
Henry said "Reconciled in Iraq" is a book of discovery.
"It's for people who are wondering which way to go, who think they are lost and all alone," he said. "It makes you realize that there are other people out there who don't really know what they should be doing at the time."
Jopp, who has a bachelor of science degree in English, ties in his life experience, his philosophy and his theology into the book.
"What you see is that life is a little bit weird and things aren't quite the way they are supposed to be and people are a little bit mad about this or not happy about that and they don't know why," he said. "I think my book kind of gives an understanding of what is going on."
Writing the book in the middle of a war was a way for Jopp to make sense of why things happened.
One of those things was when a mortar hit a fellow soldier's bunk.
"I was the first person there," Jopp said. "The mortar hit this guy's queue where he lives and goes through the ceiling and then goes right out the side of his bed and it did not blow up.
"Normally at 11:30 at night he would have been laying there and he would be dead," he said. "But for whatever reason, 10 minutes prior, he got this feeling to just go running and he had never done this before and he had been there four months."
When Jopp started to see unexplainable things such as this happen, he began to think that there was so much going on that he could not understand.
"Strange things started happening, coincidence after coincidence," he said. "I felt more and more compelled to write something about this and try to find these answers and they just seemed to come to me. But realize, this is after a lifetime of thinking about these questions. It did not just happen in Iraq. It's just that everything came together over there."
Kathy Jopp knows how passionate her son is about making people happy.
"By telling his struggles, he is telling people not to give up and keep going and look for what is going to make you happy in life and help your fellow man because that's your purpose here," she said. "Help your fellow man and in turn, you will be happy yourself. The world would be a much better place if people remembered their brethren and lived according to Christ's teachings."
Victor R. Martinez may be reached at vmartinez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6128.
About the book
"Reconciled In Iraq" was written by Sgt. Brian D. Jopp while he was on a 15-month tour in Iraq.
The book details his journey to truth and resolution while deployed to Mosul during the Iraq war. Jopp questions his life, belief systems, God, his government leaders and even humanity itself.
"Reconciled In Iraq" is available for $14.95 at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, iUniverse, Paradoxal Press, Books Plus, Paddyfield and ABD Booksellers.
Information: www.brianjopp.com.
Caption:
Sgt. Brian Jopp wrote "Reconciled in Iraq" while deployed in Mosul, Iraq. The book was largely inspired by his older daughter, Annika. Pictured are Sgt. Jopp with his wife, Marnie, and daughters, Ava 1, and Annika, 4.
Copyright (c) 2008 El Paso Times, a MediaNews Group Newspaper.
Record Number: 8058788 |
|