Radio address for July 7, 2012, about a reunion in the Northwoods with some men I haven’t seen in a long time. It’s always been hard to say what I think about ALERT now, ten years after graduation; but now if anyone asks, I feel I could point them at the thoughts in this recording, and maybe they could understand if they really listened.
Music is The Park by Secret Cities, Two Matchsticks by The Wooden Birds, and Demons by Dry the River.
Comments
Marv Behr #
Thanks Joel for putting this together. What a beautiful (and accurate!) summary of the weekend and I enjoyed reflecting on every minute of it. Hope everyone gets a chance to listen to it. It was great to see you again and meet the wife. May God continue to bless you and look forward to the next get-together. Keep in touch.
Shannon E Wehr #
Very interesting perspective and description, Joel. It was good to hear thoughts looking back on experiences from the male viewpoint that a female could only observe from the outside. Like others have said, it would be great if your retrospective was longer. One curiosity though, if you don’t mind clarifying: why do you think the ‘rebels’ may have been the most valuable part of your lessons from ALERT? For me, the environment was almost suffocating, very repressive of individualism. Being natural and who I really was- whether on base or otherwise- proved a constant challenge I tried to live out every day, so for me personally, this is probably the most intriguing part of your dialogue.
Daniel Spratt #
Well done, Joel, well done! It is men like you that drew me back. I hope that we all can look past the masks we wear and see the people Christ died to save. Thanks for putting words to the thoughts and feelings from the reunion.
WindWhisperer #
It is a lovely commentary on male bonding and rituals of communing within a small societal group for a short term. From an anthropological prospective it gives interesting data to be mused of and knowledge to be calculated but it’s all as old as time. In the end it’s our humanity that makes each strong and not our gender. It is basic human kindness in our hearts and light/love in our eyes that render out the love of the universe. Thus all the bonding, the intense bravado and etc only makes way for realism. It is the realism of the needing to understand that we are all human. With that there is a must for kindness and love/light is to be shared. Thus, dropping masks and actually loving is more important than the whole of it all. The actual adventure was the dropping of masks and the end sharing.
Much enjoyed, thank you.
Windy
Commenting has expired for this article.