All the Little Stuff

“Is that picture over there from when you finished basic?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve got respect for people who serve. Not saying that growing up near a base didn’t have its bad days.” 

“Oh yeah?”

“I’ve never felt quite comfortable about calling anyone a squid, despite my experiences, and I’m not stupid enough to say anything bad about the Marines. Never used the ‘J’ word, but I heard sailors use it a bit.”

“You mean ‘jarhead’, don’t you? Everybody does stupid stuff, from time to time. ”

“Can’t ever recall any bad incidents with any of the guys from the Corps. Somehow, I imagine that if there were any bad incidents with them, I wouldn’t be around to remember.”

“Actually, after my first time back, I almost got into it with a bunch of them. Thought I was going to die.”

“Really? What happened?” 

“Well, we’d just come back and a buddy of mine…we were headed to a convenience store with our girlfriends. We were dressed normal, didn’t have a car or anything. We were about to go in when a Jeep pulled up and a bunch of guys started piling out.”

“A Jeep?”

“Yeah, but with the top off, roll bar, headlights. They guys didn’t even bother parking. They just pulled up sideways, jumped out. Big guys mostly. Must have been their first night out after training or something. Those dudes had some arms. You could tell they’d been drinking. First guy out pointed at my friend and I and said, ‘I’m gonna kick your asses and fuck your women.’”

“Shit! Did you have to fight the guy?”

“No way. There were too many of them. They would have messed us up anyway. But I was carrying. I wasn’t technically supposed to be, but I’d just gotten back. Out of habit.”

“What did you do?”

“I drew my pistol while keeping my eyes on the big guy, their leader. They all froze. I guess they weren’t expecting it. Then the guy at the front called out, ‘He’s only got six rounds.’ That’s when I leveled the gun at him and said, ‘I don't miss.You’ll be first. Who wants to be second?’”

“Wow. That’s sounds pretty badass.”

“No, it wasn’t. It was fucked up.”

“Well, what happened? Those guys didn’t just fold up and leave, did they?”

“They were in a different branch, but all the jargon is close enough…I told them that I was going to report it in to their CO on base, that the crew better get back in their vehicle, unless the rest of them wanted to be reported for disorderly conduct too. One of the guys said something like, ‘Dude, this isn’t good, let’s go.’” 

“So, did you call it in?”

“Of course I did.”

“What happened to big guy?”

“I don’t know. I imagine he caught hell.”

“That’s heroic, the way you handled it.”

“Not at all. Look… the whole thing was messed up; it happened so quick. Someone could have gotten killed. I felt bad. They're our boys.”  
 

Adult ADHD

Adult ADHD: 

A Person Who Couldn't Sit Still

Movies and television are hard to watch. No, not hard in that all you need to do is sit and pretend that what you see is real or real enough. Productions are Hard to watch because they tend to do everything they can to mesmerize and very little to inspire.

*****

“But that’s the problem.”

What?

“Look…some folks sit down to watch, believing what is on the screen or what's been feed through the tube rather than what is in the world around them.”

Okay. So, what do you want to say? Where are you going with this? Show me something. Say it in a way that I can understand.

“From real-life?”

Yeah. Go.

“Okay…here.” 

“From somewhere in the Puget Sound, up through the San Juan Islands, through the Strait of Georgia, through Desolation Sound, up to Glacier Bay and back. In six months.”

 

“In order for a person to cover such a distance, solo, a lot of experience is required. An intimate knowledge of one’s craft. From the bottom up. Every fiber. Because things are going to break down. And survival is based upon the knowledge of how to mend whatever may need mending.”

“Although a fair number of people may kayak up and down the strait all the time, this is different. Not a kayak and not a sailboat.”

“The man-boy who built the boat actually built a large rowing shell. You see, kayakers rely heavily on their arms for power to get them through the challenges they face on their journeys.  Man-boy built his vessel so that he could row…with his whole body...facing where he’d been, navigating by markers in the past while relying on reflections to get where he thought he needed to go.”  

“He was maybe forty-something when he made that trip. A trip that was a culmination of lifetime’s worth of skills. His first big project was while he was in high school. Most kids in the special class were required to build a house for their project. He was given permission to build a boat; they either float or they don’t. His floated. He must’ve been seventeen.”

“The following winter, upon Man-boy’s return, he gave a number of slide shows, gratis, using a hundred or so of the thousands of photos he’d taken during one amazing journey. So many stories where self-sufficiency meant survival and the kindness of strangers meant not going hungry. Such an experience.”

What's this got to do with movies and television?

“You see, that’s the thing. If you’re living a life without too much of the big screen and no steady drip of the tube-infusion, you might start to get a better perspective, realize how amazing the real world is and maybe live…a little.”

"Memories that he shared...reverently whispering through the water while graced by the silent blessings of an Orca, gliding alongside." 

"Custodians, slaves, and warriors..."

Excuse me?  

"Drifting a little, just thinking about the company of sea lions and dolphins. And how, whether we realize it or not, we have the power to determine how we live our lives."

 "If we ever meet again, I wonder what I'll say...probably just 'thank you'."