Yesterday turned out to be the summer "I Screwed with My Template" Day, that randomly-placed day of fun in which I somehow forget how HTML works and inadvertently destroy my template. Oh, it probably looked fine to you; I had somehow deleted all those little %%stuff%% tags and replaced them with my Bushie rant, making it permanent and trying to figure out all damn day where my next entry was. Boy, did I have fun!
Fi asked if I might share with you all some of what my correspondent at the front has written. I've already edited it a bit for the school website (such as "I know you talked with my mother" and like that), but I can give you some. I've also left out the name of his division and exactly what he does there, because it just always seems like a bad idea to publicize that kind of thing.
Before you read, a reminder. This was a kid who was clearly very, very bright but unfocused, someone with the potential to get all A's in honors classes who just never got it together to do that. He was also bright in the personality sense, always laughing, even at himself. He screwed up from time to time but always took responsibility for himself, and cheerfully. Even so, he always harbored a childhood dream of going to West Point, and although he didn't get in right from high school, he did make it happen, and is a West Point graduate.
Everything is going well, thank G-d. My parents are great and are really a strong source of support for me in my life. That comes into handy when you are deployed! I am an officer and a platoon leader. I have a platoon of about 28 soldiers and they are phenomenal people. Luckily, my troops are hard workers and very professional. They make my life pretty easy and I let them know it all the time. Some of the soldiers are more active on the battlefield than others due to the nature of their jobs but I see them all regularly. I have yet send them on a mission I have not gone on or am not going on with them.
I believe there are a lot of similarities between the two professions, a leader in the Army and a teacher. I think it is important as a leader to have a sense of responsibility to your subordinates; I feel as though I work for them. I do what I can to facilitate their professional growth because I know better soldiers yield a better Army. In my own small world, better soldiers yield a better platoon and thus make it easier to complete missions and requirements. As I see it, your mission is along the lines of producing men and women of character �armed� with an education that will suit him/her well for whatever paths he/she may choose for themselves. I guess the major difference between our jobs is that my �students� have a predictable path to adhere to whereas teachers have to prepare students for anything! All in all, military leaders and teachers alike have a responsibility to help shape the future of our country: different customers, same result: a stable future.
I'm going to post the school website page with his letter on it in a few days; I need to check his graduation year first to get my facts straight. I know several other boys who are over there now, and there may be others, girls too of course, that I'm not aware of. I hope to hear from them, too, and post their letters as well. I've said it before: I'm grateful to each and every one of them and I'm incredibly proud of them and their service, and that they are doing this to protect us and so that we won't have to; all of this is true despite the politicians. I never could or would question the motives of the soldiers themselves, which I believe are, for lack of a better word, pure. But when I remember someone paying for a lost library book, or hanging crepe streamers for the Junior Prom, and I know that now he is in some horrible place where he is risking his life every day and every minute, it makes me ill. In my mind, they are all children, and so have no business being there. My heart aches for them all, and for their families.
That was so much more serious than I expected to get today.
I finally slept enough last night to be able to walk this morning, and I tried something new. I had read off and on about walking with poles (not Poles), including here, but I started looking into it the other day a little more closely. I kept reading articles about "the best" poles available, which can go for $140 or so, but I went into a local hiking/camping store with a coupon, and got a basic set for $25. I walked with them today, two out of my three laps; they don't recommend more than that in the beginning. It was very interesting. It's supposed to give you an upper body workout while you walk, burn way more calories and work different muscle groups, and so on. Good for the belly too, they say. My problem, of course, is that I have no sense of rhythm whatsoever, so getting the arms and legs to work together the way they should is a real challenge. I'm hoping that will come with practice, and if not, then, well, I'm guessing that like a lot of things, you don't have to do it perfectly to get something out of it. It also occurred to me that my other exercise problem might be real, and not just something that happens uniquely to me, so I looked it up and dang if it isn't a recognized condition, with an acronym even: EIR. Exercise-Induced Rhinitis. Doesn't that sound like fun? It means that I have to blow my nose every 20 yards or so while I'm walking because it keeps stuffing up. Now that I know what it is, I'll try a nasal spray that I have on hand tomorrow, and if that doesn't work, I'll call the doctor for the one that's mentioned in some of the articles. So now, someday, when you hear someone say "Gee, I get all stuffy when I exercise" you'll be the one who can say "Hey! I know what that is."
(My sister had Allergic Rhinitis of Pregnancy, which I've heard about in other people, too. Her nose was stuffed up for about the last four months of her second pregnancy. The moment the doctor lifted out the second baby, it cleared up, right there on the delivery table.)
Okay, I'm going to read one of those little cookbook magazines they show at the supermarket check out lines; I love these things and I picked one up this morning. And now I'm sending them on to K, who's trying to learn to cook beyond her single specialty of Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Oh yes, I prepared them well for life.
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I'm watching Gilmore Girls
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Sweet Sorrow - 06.12.2007
So ... - 12.19.2006
Christmastime Is Near - 12.18.2006
Fifteen Years - 12.17.2006
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