Out on the OP - LP. 10.6.12

   

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Happy Weekend, Ranger Readers.  We have been away a few days; today Ranger attended a reunion of the "Old Airborne Instructors Association" -- the "Black Hats".  (Though not an instructor, he administered to the Airborne students. Five years ago, members of the 4th Student Battalion, Airborne, were admitted, and Jim was invited by his friend and former First Sergeant, Lowell J.)

Tonight, Ranger stepped outside to chat with a group of guys attending their AIT.  They were all drinking beer out on the patio when Jim pulled up and shouted, "One round'll get you all!" Some called out "disperse, disperse!", and they assumed a 5 meter dispersion; another offered him a beer, wondering who this strange man was.

I said they were cute, and that he should talk with them, which he proceeded to do, just asking them if they had any questions about what lay ahead.  A serious question was regarding how one maintains one's personal space: "How do you get used to being around so many people all the time?"

Ranger's initial astute reply was that he requested to live on the Vietnamese side of the camp, and then perhaps thought differently on the advice.  He advised them to take their leave time and get away whenever they could.  Reading is always a good escape.

We will not be back online until Monday.  Meantime, how do you maintain your sanity, your privacy, your "leave time" when you need some mental rehab? 

Anthony Storr wrote, "Solitude: A Return to the Self," in which he suggests solitude is a prerequisite for correct interpersonal interaction.  Paul Woodruff in his"Reverence, A Forgotten Virtue," suggests reverence is "the well-developed capacity to have the feelings of awe, respect, and shame when these are the right feelings to have."  In order to ascertain that reality, one must have sought out reflective time.  Both books feature attractive covers featuring rowboats.

Your thoughts?  If not on solitude, then anything else that whets your whistle.