It was a strange care package: lip balm, lotion, batteries.

But no request was too big — or in this case, too small — for Christine Kaplan, a Lawrence woman whose 22-year-old son is stationed somewhere in the Persian Gulf.

“The kids are really hot during the day and really cold at night,” Kaplan said. “It’s dusty and the wind blows a lot.”

So she bought ample supplies and for the past several days has been sending packages — most no bigger than a shoe box — to her son Sean Heskew. She’s included extra items for the others in his marine unit.

It’s a task that keeps her hands busy, and for that she is thankful.

“This is a parent’s worst nightmare,” Kaplan said. “I’m just beside myself.”

Kaplan said she can’t sleep, and she doesn’t watch the news. She’s often on the verge of tears, and there’s little doubt her anxiety about the looming war with Iraq is greater than most in Lawrence are feeling.

But not that much greater.

Across the Lawrence area, the manifestations of a possible war are present in police departments and bookstores. Few face Kaplan’s difficulties, but war is on the minds of pastors and professors, and it is affecting daily lives in subtle, but real, ways.

Local psychology

In the days after 9-11, calls at Headquarters Counseling Center spiked.

Nothing similar has been reported in recent weeks — even when the terror threat level was raised — but director Marcia Epstein did say the center regularly heard from people anxious about the war.

“This affects everybody, whether it’s little children who are more concerned because of what they’re seeing on TV or parents who are more stressed,” she said.

The Sept. 11 attacks were a surprise event that caused immediate panic, she said, while the threat of war is an ongoing concern.

And if it becomes a reality?

“I don’t know what to expect,” she said.

The threat of war may be producing chronic, low-grade stress in communities such as Lawrence, said Steve Ilardi, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychology at Kansas University.

He said he was hearing from students concerned about the economy, which now seems tied to the threat of war, and he said that people with pre-existing conditions may have flare-ups.

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Most others, he said, have a “wait-and-see attitude” and may be adapting to the anxiety by trying to ignore it.

“I think there has been an increase in things like box-office attendance” at movies and other diversions, he said. “People are spending more time looking for some kind of escapist entertainment.”

In the trenches

Others can’t afford to push the problems away.

Heartland Community Church senior pastor Paul Gray hears concerns often from members of his congregation.

They worry about the price of gas and the poor stock market. No one wants to go to war. Many are concerned about loved ones in the military.

In Tonganoxie, the police department has seen three of its seven officers, including Police Chief Kenneth Carpenter, leave for military duty.

Two Lawrence police officers who double as Army reservists have been called to active duty, and while KU Public Safety’s office has yet to lose any officers in Lawrence, five from KU Med have been called up.

“It hurts,” said KU’s Lt. Schuyler Bailey.

KU Registrar Richard Morrell estimated about 50 students had withdrawn from classes because they were called to active duty.

To help, his office set up a one-stop withdrawal office in Strong Hall to make the process easier.

“The kids have appreciated that,” Morrell said, adding that before the office opened one student spent a whole day trying to withdraw. “He wanted to spend the day with his family.”

War at home

Family settings seem to be where a lot of the discussion about war is taking place, as teachers in elementary schools throughout the city forgo classroom discussion, instead leaving it for those that might occur around the kitchen table.

“First-graders can get frightened very easily, so we really haven’t been talking about it,” said Deerfield teacher Janine Monaghan.

If asked, she’s prepared to answer her students’ questions honestly and simply, but she’ll also point out how far away the Persian Gulf is.

“We just try to make sure that they feel safe and secure.”

At The Children’s Book Shop, 937 Mass., are a half-dozen books meant to explain war to youth.

“United we stand: America’s war against terrorism,” is the title of one, but a cashier said the books — a few of which are directed at teachers — weren’t selling very quickly.

So far children at Hilltop Child Development Center have seemed fairly unconcerned with the conflict, said executive director Pat Pisani.

“We’re not going to initiate big discussions about it because some families would be uncomfortable,” she said.

But if war breaks out, so will the inevitable questions. Threats will instantly seem more real. And people like Gray must have something to say.

Gray said he knew what he would tell his congregation: Support the country’s leadership. And pray.

With her only son thousands of miles away, Kaplan couldn’t agree more.

“Just say our prayers,” she said. “Remember how precious our people’s lives are. Not just ours, but everybody’s, and just say our prayers and hope for the best.”

Staff writers Terry Rombeck, Scott Rothschild and Eric Weslander contributed to this story.