Plane Talk

On my flight back from Chicago to Atlanta I sat next to a 21 year old who had just left Navy basic training that morning and was in route to her new training school in Mississippi. She kept saying she was still a little overwhelmed as she spoke and I could tell. She had lived in a vacuum the past 8 weeks in a rigid routine, in another city, on another base, and as simple as stepping onto a plane, her life would now change. I listened to the conversations of the other new recruits as they were trying to decide if Atlanta was in Georgia. She had never been to Georgia before and this was her second trip on an airplane. One recruit asked another if they had heard of Stevie Ray Vaughn. The recruit replied 'No' and the asker said that you've never heard rock and roll until you've heard Stevie Ray Vaughn. They discussed that the old bands they liked were Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I smiled but said nothing. I always wondered why I got carded when I was 21. Now I knew why. I never knew youth was so apparent.

Sara, the new recruit sitting next to me explained that her mother was in a nursing home and could barely recognize her due to a disease. She wanted to make a stable living so she could take care of her mother. Her father's relationship was described as 'he works a lot'. I remember this age. The age where I felt an overly sense of responsiblity, where I could change the world. Sara would never be able to fix her mother and I wondered if she'd accepted that fact yet. I'll admit, I still feel this challenge in my own life, but now I guess I have a better sense that some things in life are just not in my control. For some reason I wanted to parent her, tell her everything would be okay, give her a hug even, but I didn't. She was so very adult sitting in her polished Navy suit that she fiddled with like a toddler with a new toy. I did tell her how proud we all were of her as well as all of those who serve. I tried to offer the words her mother could not.

After training school she would embark to a job and place that the Navy would decide for her. Her own future was unknown to her at the moment. At first I was so shocked by this. I could not imagine not knowing what city I would be told to live in as well as doing a job in which I had no input. But then the more I thought about it, and here's where my spiritually kicked in, I suppose that is the way I live my life. I don't really know about tomorrow but have the wisdom to know that I will most likely never have exactly what I want but I also have the faith to believe that I will always have what I need. In that I feel comfort. Mick Jagger is a profound guy.

Last night I said a little prayer for Sara and the new recruits. God bless them everywhere.