I haven't even logged my miles for a few weeks and we're up there in the standings, and with only three people on the team so far, we've won $400 in swag. Play your cards right and you could be eating some free Jason's Deli.
After making the other bike commuters jealous, we rode on to Penn Valley Community College where The Mission Continues was doing a presentation. It's an organization that helps wounded vets transfer their military experience into public service when they get back.
I was reluctant to go, but the speaker (his name eludes me, this was a couple weeks ago – the pace of my life has outstripped my blogging lately) was compelling. He probably could have just gotten doped up on psych meds to deal with his PTSD and spent the rest of his life playing X-Box, something he did 14 hours a day when he got back.
When he tried to volunteer at Big Brothers, he didn't pass the vetting process because of his war injuries and diagnoses. When another organization advertised that they took convicts, he thought, if they'll take felons maybe they'll take vets.
And they did. He and three other vets were asked what sort of assignment they wanted and they decided they'd take whatever nobody else wanted to do. As someone who never enlisted or even understood why someone might decide to enlist, I have trouble seeing this positive side of a soldier's mindset.
It's easy to focus on how armies kill folks and blow shit up, it's what we have armies for. Regrettable, sure, all you have to do is look at Tibet to see it's not an organization we can simply quit having. Or maybe it's not that regrettable if that organization and human energy can be applied to constructive purposes.
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