Had a fine time with Peg and Elva at lunch yesterday. We met at 1:00 and stayed talking, laughing, and reminiscing until almost 5:00.
It was somewhat eerie to see Elva again after so long. I had speculated with sister Betty that she might look either like an elegant, middle-aged model (she was a very pretty, 13-year-old blonde when I saw her last) or an over-the-hill frump. She seemed to me an odd combination of both.
A ghost of her former self--and ours, I guess--emerged, especially when we started talking about old schoolmates and former boyfriends. We realized that a surprisingly large number of both have died, an unsettling reminder that we ain't gettin' any younger, but we managed to veer away from that.
Visited Pat before and after; he was in therapy in the morning when I was there. He's doing all right and is continuing to eat all his meals, but I'm still concerned that he doesn't ask for more assistance. Instead, he waits until I get there to ask me.
Tonight, Susan and Walter are talking me out to dinner, as a thank-you for feeding their cat and parrot while they were away last month. Geez, since Pat's been sick, my social calendar is more crowded than ever!
Not that I'm complaining, you understand...
Wider: From the NYTimes:
"The Army plans to require that all 1.1 million of its soldiers take intensive training in emotional resiliency, military officials say...."
I wonder if any combatants will be emotionally stuck on killing. How will the army instill "resiliency" if a soldier says, "Gee, sir, it bothers me to be in an organization designed to kill people. How can I become more emotionally resilient about that?"
I can't imagine any will ask, though.
Wider Still: Yesterday, Elva mentioned with a great deal of pride that her brother had been a fighter pilot during the Vietnam war, had flown a large number of missions, and had been awarded some highly-regarded medal or other. It occurred to me yet again how very difficult--almost impossible--it is to combat the military mindset. What she was actually saying--"Hey, my brother's a great guy; he incinerated a lot of human beings in Asia!"--should make people recoil in horror, but of course, most will react with awed admiration.
As for me, I decided against expressing anti-war sentiments at a such a reunion lunch. Coward that I am, I simply nodded and said, "Oh."