#24: Brenton MacKinnon - After You Have Suffered; War, Revelation & Maturity

Episode SummaryBrenton ‘Mac’ MacKinnon is an American poet, combat veteran, polyglot, world-traveler, and creative writing teacher. Mac joins us for a deeply moving conversation about his hard-earned knowledge of warfare, PTSD, writing, healing and the profound desire to be known and belong. In After You Have Suffered; we come to know Mac as he recounts some of the life events which shaped him: the revelation writing was to his adolescent self and the tremendous bonding experience he had with Vietnamese villagers with wartime dangers about. We also explore how war intensifies the instincts which are called forth during combat and how the journey back to American and conventional life was fraught with confusion, hurt, and PTSD. With Cpl. MacKinnon we get a patient and forthright account with not just the impact of war, but the marks it leaves in the human soul. We get a remarkable sense of how the stress of war changed the way he evaluates American culture and its false-maturities. More than that we get from this elder a irreplaceable sense of why it is important to give our attention and regard to those amongst us who’ve endured overwhelming circumstances, because, as Mac simply says: it’s different after you have suffered.