Where From?
H
a place but rather, from an experience. He was referring to McCain as
being from The Military Experience, and noted that part of that
Experience was his being a brat.
Note that there's a subtle thing here - he's not talking about McCain's
military experience as an asset politically, nor denigrating that
experience as the left wing does when they bring the subject up. Rather,
he's talking about The ME as being a mindset that replaces being from an
actual Physical Place.
It bothers me a little on two counts. One is that the ME is not quite
the same thing as the Brat Experience. But that's just a quibble.
The other is whether the BE actually is the same sort of thing as being
from a PP. I've had a taste of being from Chicago, & I'm not sure it's
the same sort of thing as I have being a brat.
As I think about it, it strikes me that the writer is wrong about anyone
actually being from a PP. I think maybe we all are from some kind of
Experience. Mostly high school, I believe, but also from Work. That's
why there are Alumni Associations for schools and work places - but none
that I know of from any PP.
--
Harmon is "at mac dot com"
Danbob
Well, not ultimately, I guess. I do think there's more of a, "sense,"
of being from a physical place for civvies. The streets they know,
their neighborhoods, their stores, their relative's houses - it all
forms a sort of gestalt for them that adds up to an identity.
For Brats, of course, our parents would perform that amazing magical
trick once every year or two called, "The Transfer." And they could
make our streets, and stores and neighborhoods disappear in a flash.
Kind of interesting when you think about it. The Buddhists are always
talking about how we need to realize that everything is impermanent,
everything's ultimately an illusion, and that's the beginning of
wisdom. Maybe Brats have a little more of a sense of that, because of
the way we grew up.
H
>
> Kind of interesting when you think about it. The Buddhists are always
> talking about how we need to realize that everything is impermanent,
> everything's ultimately an illusion, and that's the beginning of
> wisdom. Maybe Brats have a little more of a sense of that, because of
> the way we grew up.
The one that always boggles my mind is that what we perceive as reality
is just a sort of rough cut, based on selective sensory information &
reconstructed in our minds. Then I start thinking about how at the
quantum level there's this "spooky action at a distance" which involves
poking a subatomic particle in one place and having another subatomic
particle thousands of miles away reacting immediately to the poke.
Reality is really really unreal.
Danbob
>
> The one that always boggles my mind is that what we perceive as reality
> is just a sort of rough cut, based on selective sensory information &
> reconstructed in our minds. Then I start thinking about how at the
> quantum level there's this "spooky action at a distance" which involves
> poking a subatomic particle in one place and having another subatomic
> particle thousands of miles away reacting immediately to the poke.
> Reality is really really unreal.
> --
> Harmon is "at mac dot com"
Yes it really is unreal. My brother used to call that our,
"perceptual grid." Everything that we encounter is filtered through
our very limited sensory organs and refiltered and refiltered through
our experiences and our prejudices.
And, of course, now we've got the Glass Tit, as a writer used to call
the television. More and more information flowing in with no time to
assess it except in the most basic terms. You spend a little time
contemplating the photographs from the Hubble space site and you
really realize how unreal it all is.
Rick Terry
I'll enter here. Although Dan's remarks about the Buddhists are
relevant.
I am, somehow, stuck with PLACE. I can describe place to the nth
degree in detail.
But, it isn't the place I remember any longer. The people are
different.
I have, right in front of me, a letter from a friend who shared in the
most formative years of my life. Her words, no matter how much about
the current events in life, bring forth memories of a PLACE.
In some respects, on the personal level, it is very unfair to her and
I. We are, after all, still breathing, experiencing, and still living
life.
On a more esoteric level, I would not be me, faults and all, without
those experiences, without the presence of my friend in my memories,
or without an appreciation of the difference time and place make.
I am who I am. I cannot go back and change something at will. The
older I get, the more I would not wish to do that. That doesn't mean
that I don't have some things about me that don't need a bit of work.
It means that I start with what I have.
Political parties sell a set of "ideals" (lower case on purpose.) They
can't sell past experience. I have this thought that if you use a
political party long enough it becomes part of your past experience.
Brat Experience is different from Military Experience. I consciously
chose to forgo the latter because of the former. Hindsight tells me
that may have short-changed me. I have no real regrets.
I have lived in Shawnee, Oklahoma, by and large, since 1976. I am not
from here. Only two places ever felt like home: Woodward, Oklahoma and
Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany. But, my home is here. It is a comfortable
one, if somewhat in need of repair. My sons grew up here. Thus, the
need for repair. I have an attachment to this place. But, there is no
garden. So, this is not home. (The last statement would take a book to
explain.)
Work has an impact like school does. It is a major activity engaged
in, at a place, for an extended period of time. I remember working for
the university with longing. There was much about the experience that
was uplifting, positive, and fruitful. Virtually every single such
memory is associated with a person. In the last years it damn near
killed me. That's the downside.
Danbob
Well, that may be a Brat characteristic, too. I know I associate
particular times of my life with particular people and I can still see
their faces and hear their voices with crystal clarity. My brother's
been dead . . . Jesus, 36 years now (how's THAT possible?) . . . and
I can still see his face like it was yesterday.
An odd thing that occurred to me as I was reading your post: I don't
have those associations for when I was living off base. Virtually
every strong bond I made before I moved out of my folks house was made
on base. Don't know why that is. Could be because the civvies just
had a totally different mind set or it could be that they didn't view
army folks as part of the neighborhood. I'll have to think about that
one.
Gene
First, if the journalist whom Harmon mentioned to begin this wasn't a
brat, then I defy him to be correct. I know he'd want to be, but he's
going to miss the mark.
There is no such thing as a ME - there are, however, thousands,
millions of "me"s. Each of us had a different experience, even if we
were at the same place at the same time because we came from a
different place and went to a different place. Back then, it mattered
what our sponsor's (in all our cases, our dad) rank was.
And you can bet the me of the son of an admiral, grandson of an
admiral was a lot different than the me of a helicopter pilot who
retired as a major.
BTW, Harmon, since you injected a bit about politics, I might note
that the last folks who denigrated the military experience were
Republicans.
Gene
Danbob
Yes, it's interesting - that whole thing about McCain being the son
and grandson of admirals.
And I hasten to add here that I am NOT being critical of McCain or
trying to start any sort of a partisan political discussion.
Having said that, it's interesting to me, as a Brat, that he was third
from the bottom of his class at Annapolis. And it wasn't because he
wasn't bright enough to be at the top of his class. Certainly his
subsequent career has proven that. According to his own accounts it
was because he was doing a lot of partying and very little studying.
All of which reminded me of Mary W.'s statement that Brats tend to be
super responsible or super irresponsible. And I think that in some of
these Brats with hereditary mantles you get an odd admixture of the
two qualities. It's almost as if McCain felt duty bound to go to
Annapolis and then did everything he could to blow it up. Like he was
being super responsible and super irresponsible at the same time.
Same thing with Lucian Truscott the 4th (5th?). He's the descendant
of multiple generals and goes to West Point but then blows it up.
Ends up living in Greenwich Village writing novels. In his case, I
guess the irresponsible side won the battle.