The army and I

I was going to blog a third part to my 'love' observations, and had the idea nicely line up in my head. But I decided against it, mostly because I think that I need to take a step away from ranting and visceral fiction.

So, a bit of relatively light material today.

This post struck me as I was watching 'We are Marshall'. Actually, two things stuck me in that show. One of it was the reason that American football is the most popular sport in that country. The other was the way that the movie made me feel.

I felt the exact same way watching Band of Brothers. For some reason, and movie the properly depicts esprit de corps is to me the equivalent of the notebook to most girls. It can drive me to tears.

For that reason, I really think that if I wasn't born here and if I didn't have so much contempt for the values that this country stands for, watching something like that could very well have made me a soldier. It might sound a little gay, especially since a lot of that has to do with male compatriots bonding, and dying for each other. But it isn't. I just don't know what part of me puts my tear ducts into gear when I see a captain or a coach stand before his men and rally them. And just trying to put yourself in their position, and feeling the very same drive that surges through the team. The belief that the impossible can be done. Its all terribly corny. Which is why I think the comparisons to notebook type movies works very well.

Fighting for the fallen, making their sacrifices count, battling on to make the unit proud of itself. All those things probably elicit eyerolls form a lot of people. But I'm not ashamed to say that I feel for them. Of course, knowing that most of it is based on a true story helps. This really happened, in some way or another. Not everyone is an asshole.