During this Memorial Day period, I cannot help but turn to the words (quoted in the epigram) spoken by Former First Lady, Barbara Bush. Did she really mean to show such callous disregard for American (also Coalition) and Iraqi soldiers and civilians and, indeed, for all human beings in whatever land in which they reside and suffer the tragedy of war?

I have been mystified by her words ever since I read them as quoted widely in various news sources and on the Internet. It is hard to square her words with her usual gray-haired "grandmotherly" demeanor.

Frankly, I find if hard to believe she actually spoke those words, and must wonder if she would have thought "body bags" irrelevant if granddaughters, Barbara and Jenna, or other members of her own clan were serving with the armed forces in Iraq.

Surely, someone as seemingly good-natured and intelligent as the former First Lady did not mean for these words to come across with such heartless disregard for sacrifice, suffering and death.

What is a person to say when confronted with a man or woman whose legs were blown off or the parents of a dead soldier: "Sorry, I cannot turn my beautiful mind on you, as your suffering is irrelevant."

In my own version of the modern political "spin game," I refuse to take Barbara Bush seriously. I prefer to believe that she was engaging in just a bit of irony.

Surely, as a mother and a church-going matriarch, she would want to turn that "beautiful mind" to thoughts of the dead Coalition men and women like those listed at the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. Over 800 Coalition soldiers have been killed and many thousands wounded (as of 5/28/2004).

Of course, we cannot be sure of the Iraqi casualty and death figures because as General Tommy Franks, former Commander of U.S. Central Command and honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), said, "We don't do body counts." Certainly, the Iraqi deaths since the military invasion are close to 10,000--at a minimum--according to the totals at Iraq Body Count.

Now that is a lot of body bags, sucking chest wounds, amputated limbs and mangled bodies for her NOT to consider. Surely, she was being ironic and meant the opposite of the sentiments expressed.

With all due respect, Mrs. Bush, I must believe that you have been misunderstood, that even in the country (United States) that some Europeans call "the land without irony" that your feelings ran so deep, were so intensely sad that you were embarrassed to express them fully less you, as a wife and mother of presidents, be thought weak on national defense.

I must believe that you meant that, of course, your "beautiful mind" is big enough to embrace light and darkness; that--of course--I am concerned about troops, Coalition or Iraqi, and that civilians from that benighted part of the world do not become mere "collateral damage."

And, I am sure that you meant that there is more to "positive thinking," to maintaining a "beautiful mind," if you will, than ignoring the suffering of others, what some have called the "shadow" aspect of existence.

The psychologist, Carl Jung, once said that the shadow "is the person you would rather not be." Yet, he points out that embracing the shadowy aspects of world and self is part of the process of maturing as a psychologically healthy human being.

Deepak Chopra--certainly a proponent of the positive in this human life--says somewhere in his voluminous writings:

If you are not casting shadows, you are living in darkness.

We are all in this earthly life together. We disregard the suffering of others at our own peril.

I pray that you were being ironic, Mrs. Bush. Surely, you care. . .

Author's Comments: Perhaps, the most moving commentary that I have read about this statement is in Joyce Marcel's brilliant essay, For Lack of a Beautiful Mind, published on 4/16/2003 published at Common Dreams.org.