The Marine Corps experience

[Guest guest]

Hi Amanda,

 

Thanks for the encouragement. When you mentioned boot camp as a

spiritual practice, it reminded me of how the entire experience had the

nature of one long moment. I started and ended it, and time had little

meaning throughout. The techniqes involved in training Marines has a

long history and many subtlties, which were quite clear to me as I was

subjected to them and had the oportunity to observe 100 other men going

through the same thing at the same time in close proximity. Some broke

down, others excelled. I passed through it like a leaf on the wind. I

wouldn't do it again, but I value what it gave me.

 

Thirteen weeks of loss of control over every aspect of your life. It's

something to behold, and not without it's frightening aspects. When I

look at the news and see armies of children commiting unspeakable acts,

I know that it isn't hard to get the young to do it, because there was a

point when I would have done whatever I was ordered to do. The Marine

Corps. I experienced was well disciplined and I don't believe encouraged

any kind of 'war crime' but it's easy to see that one could encourage

any sort of behavior one wished in such an environment. Those who can

not be integrated are filtered out, which is more or less the point of

boot camp. I joined with a friend who didn't last long. We never got the

chance to speak while he was still with my platoon, and was soon

spirited away. I saw him again years later and he was concerned that I

had lost my respect for him, even after all that time. It had never

occured to me, and took me by suprise. He seemed like a broken man.

 

I had many adventures while in the service, and met some interesting

people. It expanded my understanding of what I was capable of and how

worldly affairs operate. I witnessed all kinds of obsessions and learned

a thing or two about the desire driven part of myself along the way. You

wouldn't believe what a dollar will get you in the right bar. In

retrospect it seems like I was living in a haze, but the whole time I

was seeing one clue after another down this strange path that just keeps

getting more interesting and rewarding. The series of events that have

made up who I am today could not be other than they were, and it's with

exitement that I wait for the next turn of events.

 

Jim