Journal Entry: "R&R"

It’s kind of a slow day today. Another Sunday. A day of rest and recuperation. I got caught up in all of my letter writing already and I’m not really in the mood for the teenage-level discourse on the topics of sports, sex, and cars. Sports and cars haven’t been a compelling subject for me for a couple of decades and as for sex, well at the age of most of these guys, it’s still mostly theoretical. Though they each insist they are this generations Don Juan. Was I that pathetic back then? Probably.
The soldiers seem to finally be coming together for the most part with a few hold-outs defending some false sense of individuality down to the last and, ironically, to their detriment. It’s fascinating to watch some of the characters in this bizarre play. At times I feel like Jane Goodall living among the Mountain Apes the way some of them act. But I still hope that most of them can and will take this opportunity to better themselves and develop a sense of community. There’s really only one that I already believe is too sociopathic to have a chance. As much as he irritates me, I find myself thinking about him and wondering if there was some way to get through. Actually, since I started writing this entry, he’s already involved himself in no less than three barracks melodramas. This nest week should go a little faster. There are a lot of Army rites of passage coming up including the gas chamber where they expose you to CS gas (which, oddly enough, everyone is really excited about) and our first “bivouac” (Army for camp out). The first bivouac is just an overnighter, but there are many here who have probably never slept out from under a roof. With rain threatening everyday, it should be interesting. This upcoming generation is so soft, but the heart is still there, lying dormant, waiting to be awakened.