Rather than continuing to harp on the ongoing, unstoppable, slow-motion train wreck that is Florida, I thought I'd write about my return to the Naval Academy for the first time in 45 years.
It was the 45th reunion of the class of '79, and I'd never previously attended any of them. My experience at Annapolis was, shall we say, complicated. To make a long story short, I went there full of hope for success and achievement, quickly settled for "survival."
When I went to the academy, the model was "attritional." I'd never heard it expressed that way before, until I attended the Superintendent's brief to the class. But, yeah, it was definitely "attritional." Much like the Navy's "up or out" career path.
Well, they have a new model today. I don't recall specifically what she called it, but it's more like "recruit and retain." About 10% of the people who apply to Annapolis are admitted. I was surprised it was that much, but I guess that after almost a generation of a "Global War on Terror," a military career isn't as appealing as it once was. Vietnam wasn't that long, though it was far bloodier.
Anyway, the idea is to select the best candidates, and then help them succeed. That seems like a much smarter approach than the one I endured.
Not all of my classmates were as impressed. "Coddled" was a word that was mentioned.
But it's not "coddling" someone to help them succeed. Midshipmen must still accommodate themselves to military discipline, the physical demands, and the academic ones. Some can do this more readily than others. It's not that those "others" are unsuited for service in the military, it's just that they may need a little help getting started.
It was a pleasant surprise to learn how much affection I still have for my company-mates. The campus was almost unrecognizable to me, it's changed so much over the decades. Bancroft Hall, "Mother B," remained much as I remembered her, and the chapel. I wasn't much of a church-goer at the Academy. Plebe Summer I went every Sunday, because it got me out of Bancroft Hall, where danger lurked around every "squared corner." Once academic year came around, Sunday was a day to sleep in.
Whatever success I enjoyed in my Navy career was, in many respects, in spite of my experience at Annapolis, rather than because of it. But nearly all of the important lessons I've learned in my life, I learned in the navy, and that began at Annapolis.
That took nearly a lifetime, but it was worth it.
In case you're just tuning in, here's the short version:
Big picture? Life is meaningless.
If you're looking for meaning in your life, you're wasting your time. You won't find it. You must make it. We bring meaning to life.
The greatest opportunity to make meaning is through service to others.
Everything we have, all this stuff, all our awards, our titles our achievements can be taken from us in heartbeat. One day, life is pretty sweet. The next day, you're dragging all your stuff to the curb and looking for a new place to live. See: Current events.
The past is out of reach, the future is unknown. All we have are moments to live. One at time.
All we have are moments to live, and each other. Because we're all in this together, and none of us is getting out of here alive.
Power? It's an illusion. The only power that exists is the power to choose. It's a very weak power. Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces of the universe. (Five, if you count irony. As I do.) Yet it holds the world together.
Our cognitive abilities? Our capacity for rational thought? We flatter ourselves. They're far more limited than we suppose. Most of what we do is habituated, unconscious. Stimulus and response.
The space where power exists is between stimulus and response, where you can choose.
That faculty that affords that space is attention. It's a resource, like time. And just as finite. Use it wisely. Pay attention to your what you're giving your attention to. Don't waste it. (Though we mostly do. But small investments yield huge dividends.)
The "ties that bind?" Faith.
Love.
Love is faith in action. Honor is the act of "keeping faith." Honor is love in action.
"Love your neighbor," is an act of service. It makes meaning. Makes your life "full" and not "empty." (Rick Scott, like most politicians, doesn't know this.)
Desire is the source of all suffering. It's glib and unfair, but suffering is the difference between the way things are, and the way we want them to be. Life is unfair. Arbitrary. Capricious.
COVID, Helene, and the shit we do to each other. It's all unfair. But it is what it is. The tautological tension that is "the harmony of binding opposites." Faith and fear. Love and anger. Honor and hate.
Yin and yang.
Existence and nothingness.
We live on the razor's edge.
Hold on.
To each other.
We're all we've got.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:12 Sunday, 13 October 2024