Last night, Matt came for a visit. Matt is a college friend of Dann’s who is now in the Marine Corps. We went out to Outback Steakhouse and had a good time talking and laughing. He likes computers, and brought his high-powered laptop with him. We plugged him into the network and played multiplayer strategy games all day today. I had planned to get a lot of important stuff done today, but instead, all I wound up doing was playing video games. I mean, it was great and all; we were all on the same team in the same room, shouting strategies at each other over the sound effects of industrial resources being blown sky-high by the enemy, but I didn’t get the “real-world” things done that I wanted to get done.

That doesn’t matter, though; I’ll get them done next weekend. In the meantime, Matt leaves tomorrow, and he’s heard word that he’s being sent to the “sandbox” (i.e., somewhere in the Middle East), and he doesn’t know how long it’ll be before he can return home.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, both Dann and I had thoughts of going into the military after high school. (I later found out that my personality type often goes into the military, academia, or the clergy. They really pegged me; I’ve seriously considered all of them.) Neither one of us joined up, though; for my part, I was a little unsure of then-President Clinton’s ability to command the military, and I felt I was probably a little better suited to academic life than military life, so I went to college.

Matt also went to college (that’s where he met Dann), and joined the Marine Corps afterwards, for various reasons of his own. He likes it there, and is glad he joined. I’m glad I didn’t join up, even though as a rule I admire and respect those in the military, because I just don’t think I’d have fit in. The more I learn about military life, and the more I reflect on it, the more I conclude that it is neither adapted to my strengths nor adjusted for my weaknesses.

I think back to all the time I spent playing with G.I. Joes and watching the cartoon series when I was a kid, but that didn’t really implant the desire to actually do those things in me. I wonder how many of our troops out there got their start playing with the war toys I played with, and it did lead them on to joining up. At any rate, I certainly won’t be forbidding such toys to my kids, considering how much fun I got out of them (and am still getting, if you lump in the war strategy video games I spent all day playing today).

I wish Matt all the best, and I support our troops in foreign countries, but I’m glad I don’t have to go. May God’s grace be with all our troops, and bring them back home safely.