Author Spotlight - Paul Kendel
Paul Kendel earned master’s degrees in both history and archaeology, sandwiched by a three-year stint in the US Army and National Guard deployments to Saudi Arabia in 2002 and Iraq in 2005. It was during his deployment in Iraq that he became conflicted, struggling to balance the ideals of patriotism and honor with the realities on the ground as his buddies began dying at the hands of the enemy within six weeks of their arrival. Eventually, his ongoing concern for the Iraqi people alienated some of his comrades, and he felt the sting of this ever-growing conflict within himself.
Turning to the books on Buddhist teachings he had brought with him, he began reading about the Shambhala warrior and the Tiger’s Path in various meditation books. The Shambhala teachings of the Tiger’s Path highlight the animal’s practice to move carefully and precisely through the landscape, a practice that Paul found vital to his situation in Iraq. On a whim, he emailed Shambhala International, an organization that links a worldwide network of urban Buddhist meditation centers and retreat centers, and requested assistance. An unexpected response and ongoing support from Buddhist teacher and meditation instructor Margot Neuman helped him to retain a sane and humble humanity in a situation that often plummeted into lethal insanity.
Paul retired from the National Guard in 2011 and, soon after, his autobiography Walking the Tiger’s Path: A Soldier’s Spiritual Journey in Iraq detailing his war experiences was published.
He followed in October 2022 with his second book – Baghdad Blues: A Novel of the Iraq War. Here, Paul narrates the fictional account of a young US soldier and his comrades who face danger on a near-daily basis:
At a dusty intersection in Baghdad, Sergeant Thomas Kirkland is seconds away from unleashing a hail of bullets on a possible suicide bomber when he's stopped by the unexpected—the piercing dark eyes of a young girl sitting on her mother's lap in the passenger seat. For a split second he'd held the life of this child and her family in his hands. Plagued by fear and anxiety, Sergeant Kirkland struggles with his own inner demons as he confronts a population around him that wishes him dead. But he confronts more than just an external enemy, as he discovers the darkness that exists not just within himself, but in his fellow soldiers.
A starkly honest and gut-wrenching account of the Iraq war from the perspective of an infantry soldier patrolling the dusty and lethal roads of south-west Baghdad. The threat of IEDs and ambushes are ever-present, but as Sergeant Kirkland and his comrades soon learn, modern war can take many shapes and forms. Grappling with a myriad of emotions—fear, anger, confusion, and anxiety—they face many external threats, but they begin to discover that the enemy within themselves can often be more challenging and dangerous than the one they were sent to fight.
After returning from Iraq, Paul worked with Mindfulness Peace Project – a non-profit organization based in Niwot, Colorado – to develop secular mediation programs for combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He has also participated in non-denominational mindfulness-based meditation workshops for incarcerated prisoners across the country. He settled in Valladolid in 2020 and later moved to Mérida. He works on-line as an adjunct history professor teaching World History and Anthropology for a university in Florida. Paul has two sons, one serving in the Air Force and the other in the Navy. He returned recently from Cuba where he was researching material for a novel he is writing about Ernest Hemingway’s submarine hunting adventures during WWII.
Baghdad Blues is part of the library’s permanent lending collection, and both of Paul’s books are available at Between The Lines bookstore.
