Culture Shock - Iraq, Germany, Canada, NY, CO, FL, MI, PA, WA, AZ
Living a successful life is the best revenge.
Note that I said successful, not wealthy, high, enriched, safe, adventurous, or exciting.
I'm 34, at the end of a rough 18-month military-to-civilian transition. Having recently returned to American life and the culture shock is still throwing me off. The case has been publically released so I can talk about how my company knowingly left us out to dry while our base was being bombed.
Putting the pieces together about the attack has not only been traumatic, but it is also affecting how I invest energy into relationships and dynamics.
However, these recent times have exposed those who would only use me or are not suited for someone as intense or aware as myself and my family.
When my mother gave birth to me, she was 20 in the United States Marine Corps. In the middle of her first tour at MCRD in San Diego. So, as you may have guessed, my childhood was full of humor, free time, and carefree days.
After years apart, mainly to military service, I felt a shiver over the echoing seas. In that ensuing fever, I called my mother and asked her to live with me as I healed and tried to reintegrate back into society. I am noticing whole generations of people trained to lie and mislead one another into situations and circumstances. Rather than just express themselves, their core needs, and their ability to satisfy the same in others.
They seem to be obsessed with being a hero or main character in a story where they are connected to the universe, and that energy can refill their inner peace. So long as they drive like Vin Diesel, don't save, binge watch, and let go of the basic standards in self-care, diet, and exercise.
When my depression was at its worst in Iraq, I force-fed myself, dragged myself to the gym, attacked and fought my friends (they returned the favor during their swings. Death, violence, and heat made a potent mix that forced us to see the value in simple barter trades, honor, respect, basic hygiene, timeliness, team management, time management, and self-care. It is jarring and disorienting to digest, process, and uses everything that has come out to light in America since I've been gone.
When I left America, Chadwick Boseman was alive, Bill Cosby was an innocent man, Elmo was safe to show kids, Onlyfans didn't exist, Black Lives Matter was a myth...not an organization or movement that people can't agree on...a myth. There were no documentaries or mass-released statistics databases on ADOS, the industrial prison system, or the war on drugs. There were bits and pieces but never to this extent.
Everything is brand new to me. Apps, food, dating practices, COVID procedures, vaccines, mass hysteria, social media obsessions, "goals", and how people (kids to parents, men to women, women to men, political parties, sports teams) address each other. Not to sound like an old man, but sports shows (I timed it).....in a one-hour ESPN special. A total of 8 minutes of highlights. 38 minutes of "professional" opinions (most around sports politics and celebrity athlete personalities). 5 minutes of personal opinions on performance and stats.......and the rest were commercials and jokes.
I almost threw up. For most, it's always been like this, or it's the norm. I watch the seeping lethargy and tendency to procrastinate infect and divert the attention of almost every submissive and slave I have met in the last year.
I'm not breaking down or looking down upon what people want. Just reviewing the logistics of what people put in vs what they put out.
We should all actively try to be the best version of ourselves mentally, physically, and emotionally. Not for a cause, challenge, fad, crush, or fleeting confidence in which season is best to show skin. Rather, we should do it for ourselves. The only human civilization in the known galaxy. For our planet, future, air/water/food quality, and our civilization.
I think I'll just play some Xbox. I met a very nice submissive group from a yoga meet. One has a dom who isn't...up to par. Another plays zombies on Xbox. We have an understanding from the third lady being our referee since she just coming back into the professional world and me just exiting it.
We go to rope sessions, babysit each other kids, drive each other's mothers to appointments, and lend money or a place to stay when needed. We are actually in each other's lives with boundaries and a sense of community. I think I'll stay under this wilting apple tree for a spell.
My friend 5-year-old just got busted for doing makeup challenges on TikTok. Going through those videos of hundreds of thousands of concerned parents and family members reaching out to their "independent" sons and daughters was a heart pull but to each their own. My mother notes that there are women all over Phoenix with makeup literally melting off their faces. I don't know if I should applaud the effort or tell them 90 percent of the men I know don't like makeup. How it smells, looks or tastes. Just a good skincare routine and some moisturizers are what you need to survive the desert.
I'm going to surf around, striking up convo and interest in those I'm compatible with. Really liking these astrology apps backed with algorithms and census data.
