I know that feeling. There are things you only talk about with people you believe have some frame of reference. But it is also very human (and sometimes cathartic) to at least take a discussion that is 'theory' into the realm of mud and boredom and blood and loneliness and fear and that incredible rush before the adrenaline wears off.

When I came home for a while in the mid 70s I heard a lot of discussions about places and people that weren't just theory to me among people who had learned about them from a seminar at Columbia or Berkeley. I often 'reacted' and it seldom went well, but there is also the feeling you owe something to those people and places that made you who you are and a certain satisfaction that you kept faith with people who'd earned it.


>I'm afraid I posted stuff I never intended on making public. The stuff you sit around and joke about with the ones who were there. I fell into the trap of reacting...
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>>In our country political posturing about "our men and women in harm's way" has become a cynical game. It is good to be reminded that for many harm's way is real, there are things that matter, and their service means something. And they are often only remembered when it scores political points.
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>>You're the real deal, Tracy, and you always keep me optimistic that this country must be doing something right if people like you think it is worth serving and protecting.