It’s been a busy week. Visitors at work. A couple of new classes starting. The typical admin work that has to be done to keep things going…smoothly. I love doing it, but it sure tires me out sometimes. Makes me look forward to the weekend ride and the food Micha and I will go out to eat afterwards.
Tomorrow morning, we’ll be riding southeast. It’s still going to be down around freezing when we set out, but should be solidly in the 40s by the time we get home. I get excited when I can feel spring in the air. It’s so relaxing even just to daydream about where I’ll be when I’m on the road — nearly as good as being there.
I’m slogging away at Stegner’s Angle of Repose. I say that like it’s a bad thing. It isn’t. It’s just that the reading is quite thick. I’ll sit down and get through what I think is several pages only to find out I’ve read just a few. I’ve been at it for a couple of weeks and I’m still less than 200 pages into a 550-page book. I suppose sitting here typing away doesn’t help; but if you’ve noticed, after a full week last week, I haven’t put much up here either this week. It’s Friday and this is only my second time at it.
It hasn’t helped that I’ve been tired out enough by work that I only feel like putting on a show and seeing how far I can get before falling asleep. Last night I started season three of Amazon Prime’s Bosch (an excellent cop show…perhaps a bit too harsh for some) at six and woke up at nine-thirty having no idea what season three was about. Might have to go back and start again. I’d watched the first two seasons some years back, then started over again a month or so ago, hoping to get further along, but if last night was any indicator, I might not make it…again. And Bosch is all of seven seasons. We’ll see.
This week we saw the 40th anniversary of the airing of the final episode of the series M*A*S*H. It remains to this day one of the most watched television programs in history with over 120 million viewers. I remember M*A*S*H almost like it was yesterday. Watching it was part of growing up. Ironically, despite this, when I got my first Air Force assignment to Korea, I barely knew where the place was. It was “over there” somewhere. And now, here I sit — forty years and a few days after that episode aired…and just short of forty years since I first set foot in Korea — not fifty miles from where the 4077th would have operated.
While M*A*S*H did try to show us the tragedy of war, the reality was far worse. My uncle served in Korea, and he only talked to me once about his experiences. Once was enough for him. And I remember him telling me that he didn’t see anything funny at all about the war; so of course he was no fan of M*A*S*H. I get it. We all have experiences that shape how we see the world. But I look at Korea firsthand today and I’m extremely proud of what my uncle did. The blood and death that he witnessed hurt him to be sure, but he came back strong and I’ve always admired him immensely. Likewise, Korea. The nation in which I’ve lived for a quarter century is one of the most vibrant, beautiful, creative, and industrious in the world. In the meantime, the nation against which he fought still struggles as nearly the opposite. There’s no doubt that he was on the winning side, and I’ve had Koreans tell me personally that they are extremely grateful for what he and others did for them and their country.
You could say the same for me. I think I’ve gained a lot of perspective and appreciation of cultures other than my own because I’ve been so blessed to have seen the other side of the world more closely than many Americans. I love and appreciate my own country, but I can do that in a different light. To know that it is different, but that it can still be good; and in many respects, getting better.