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| Hi, everybody. It's the 11th of July, a day with no particular significance on my calendar. The days are often hard to distinguish when every morning you wake up and it is hot, windy, and dusty, and every day's duties seem just like the one before. We call it the Groundhog's Day effect, taken from the movie with Bill Murray. I've probably talked about it before, but that's kind of the point -- every day seems like you are just repeating the day before. It's much less funny to experience live than it is to watch on the screen. Boredom is a terrible enemy for soldiers. Imagine this -- we have a waiting list of guys who want to go out on patrols, out where IEDs and snipers can kill them at a moment's notice, just to relieve the monotony.
Granted, we have more movies, books, entertainment, and communication back home than any army in history. We can find plenty of ways to kill time. But that's the problem -- we know we're just killing time whenever we're not on a mission. Sure, there are some productive ways we make use of that time, too. A lot of soldiers are taking online classes. I've improved my skills on the guitar and kept up my correspondence home. The camp still feels like I imagine a prison must feel, and we all know that the very best days are the ones that pass quickly. Most soldiers still believe that, in the big picture, we are accomplishing something for our effort, but on the individual level, the progress that counts most is our progress toward getting home. In other news, this week I'm teaching our first relationship-at-a-distance skills class entitled "Bridging the Gulf". That title sounded so clever when I came up with it, and it already seems corny to me now. No matter. I have a waiting list of soldiers wanting to get into it. That's pretty encouraging to me; I spend so much time counseling people whose relationships are hurting that I'm looking forward to a group of people who believe their relationship can survive this separation and are willing to take positive action to make that happen. The good news? Armed Forces Network reported today that Army divorces, which had spiked dramatically upward in 2004, were back down considerably in 2005. The stress of deployment takes a toll, but the decline shows that marriages can survive and our efforts to strengthen marriages do make a difference. I'm happy to be part of keeping these soldiers' marriages strong. God be good to you! |