Luke has discovered a new high water mark for the term "long read". Interesting though.
Spent the evening at James' place. For a while it was just me and James, rappin, then Joel came over, then Matt, Niles and some girls I've never met. It was, well, interesting. Good hanging with James, Joel, Matt is cool. I'm not a huge fan of Niles', and not just because of that argument I got in with him a few weeks ago. He grates on me a bit. No offense to James, of course, as they're friends.
On the subway there was a soldier. It took me a while to realize that he was actually a regular Army guy, because he was wearing one of the new berets. It's weird to see an American soldier with a beret, cocked at a rakish angle, standing in the subway doorway with his hands clasped behind his back.
As some Army General so beautifully put it:
"Starting next June, the black beret will be symbolic of our commitment to transform this magnificent Army into a new force - a strategically responsive force for the 21st century," Shinseki said. "It will be a symbol of unity, a symbol of Army excellence, a symbol of our values. When we wear the beret, it will say that we, the soldiers of the world's best army, are committed to making ourselves even better."
You know what? I think I felt that.
It was strange to see this kid, he looked so young, standing there in fatigues, loudly chewing gum like his momma told him not to. It made me think of the whole concept of the military. Most of these guys (and girls) are just kids. They don't know much. Hell, I sure don't know much, and I'm 10 years older than a lot of them. Rich is always talking about his experience in the Army and how so many of the people were just incredible idiots. That he would be terrified to have to go into battle depending on them for his life. The soldier on the train had a wedding band on his left hand (I think that's the hand they go on). He couldn't have been more than 20.
There was another thing, two women who were having a conversation that was just too unreal and bizarre to recreate. I wish I could have recorded it. The words would probably seem normal enough, but they were like characters in a movie. It really seemed that someone had written their dialogue. "Okay, we need 10 minutes of completely inane talking. I don't want anything of substance said, but I don't want any gaps in the conversation." They must have been coworkers. They had that familiarity of people who see each other everyday, they might even go out for a beer once in a while, but they don't know each other particularly well. But they didn't talk about work, which throws that theory into question. I couldn't tell if they were possibly slightly drunk. They cursed a lot, talked like men.
