Someone commented once that all too often we are so preoccupied with the destination that we forget to enjoy the journey. We’re so focused on getting from A to B that we don’t see what’s around us. I’ve been arguing for years that life plans don’t suit me – I’m too afraid that I’d miss myriad opportunities were I to focus on one end goal. Granted, I have had one plan in life – when I was 17. I was going to be a teacher, marry a teacher, have two kids (boy and a girl, Tadhg and Maud) by the age of 27, and be ready to retire and travel by the age of 50. When I read that back, I see that my grand plan comprises a number of separate plans, not one of which has materialised. I failed from the outset because I didn’t get into Teacher Training College. I fell at the first hurdle. Never made the first milestone on my Gantt chart. Once I’d gotten over that disappointment (and it was a big one), I resolved that, in future, my plan would simply be to have no plan. And it’s worked – so far. When I travel, I might have a destination in mind, but I’m permanently on the look-out for some place interesting to stop along the way.
The city of Twentynine Palms in California is notable for three reasons. It’s home to the HQ of the Joshua Tree National Park. It’s home to the 932-square-mile Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command – the largest Marine Corps training base in the world. And it’s home to my mate AP’s brother.
The plan was to meet A&R for lunch and then head across the Mojave desert on the four-hour drive to Las Vegas. I was expecting a catch-up and a good lunch. I got both. What I wasn’t expecting was to find the MAGTFTC and its 10,000 + military residents. I was fascinated and found myself talking in a rapid-fire parody of an AK47. Who? Why? Where? When?
Since falling for the man of all men, Jack Reacher, he of the Lee Child novels, I’ve had a fascination with Marine life. I would love to take a tour of a base and see for myself what I expect to be true – that they’re mini-towns complete with all the modern conveniences that any thriving town would have – cinemas, bowling alleys, shops, restaurants, etc., and there’s no real reason for anyone on them to leave. In Twentynine Palms, Marines get to train to be better Marines. A simulated rehearsal of sorts. Rumour has it that so real are their simulations, they actually go to Hollywood and hire extras so that the city/culture they’re simulating is accurately represented. Makes sense. But it could go horribly wrong. They would get some shock if they invaded Ireland expecting everyone to have red hair and freckles and talk like Tom Cruise in Far and Away. [I know I could pick ten bad Hollywood Irish accents but Cruise is the focus of my ire these days because he has the nerve to think that he can do justice to my hero Jack Reacher.]
So I read up on it a little and discovered that this place in Twentynine Palms provides training for any size unit from individual to regiment, for any war fighting discipline from infantry to logistics, and from all parts of the combat spectrum from full scale war to establishing local governance. And I found myself thinking how I’d like it if all that was going on in my back yard. But then I remembered the 6000 or so locals employed in civilian capacity on the base and figured that the US Marine Corps is just like another huge corporation … and Twentynine Palms is, in effect, a company town.
Now, I’m a peace-loving gal at heart. The closest I get to war is reading about it. My opinions on the subject can’t be boxed with any regimental accuracy. Yes, it fascinates me. In my darker hours, I see it as a great evolutionary joke – we used to send our best and brightest way to fight our great wars and what was left behind added to the gene pool. I’ve written recently about the USA and its outward display of respect and appreciation for its troops and while the individual should be applauded rather than maligned for fighting for their country, those in charge occasionally leave some doubt in my mind as to their credentials.
The closest I’ve come to the US Military scene is a friendship with a couple of Coasties in Alaska, a date or three with an Army reservist in LA, and a quick conversation with a retired Marine here in BP some months back. Other American and Australian friends have sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, and parents in the service and I know that this blood tie gives them a different perspective, one I can never appreciate fully.
I am curious though – so curious – about a living a life that has unquestioned obedience at its core. To my mind, with that obedience has to come an irrefutable trust in those higher up the command chain – trust that they’re making the right decisions for the right reasons in the best interests of all concerned. In what some might seem a little strange, I have no problem believing in God but I simply cannot get my head around blind trust from a military perspective. The invocation ‘following orders’ brings me out in a cold sweat.
Twentynine Palms was simply a stop along the way – but it now has me questioning so much. As Henry Miller said: One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. Let the journey continue.
6 Responses
You now know more about the 29 Palms Marine base than I do. What I do know is about the stuff that I helped build in the years 2003, 04 & 05. Not allowed to tell you about that. BTW, I did see the Jack Reacher movie. Light fare at best. Having grown up in Pittsburgh I found it incredible that Jack Reacher was able to find addresses without benefit of a GPS unit or a Pittsburgh native co-pilot. Game trails evolved into streets and roads over the centuries.
Can’t bring myself to watch it, Art… he is so wrong for the part.
One’s destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things………..wonderful. I loved the evolutionary joke bit……….that I will remember although nowadays I suspect that the brightest and the best would stay at home and let the less bright be bribed and cajoled into fighting our wars………thinking about it the end result of that may speed up our evolution!
Ps in your travels have you come across any of these ‘high flyers’ who have managed their life through a game plan (is it a public school thing?)…….are they happy with what they have achieved or have they be willing to admit to regretting what has passed them by………..perhaps they catch up in the next life 🙂
The ones I’ve met wondered ‘what now’. I’ve achieved all I set out to achieve and now what….
Interesting… I don’t want to go back to A, and don’t even know where B is anymore. I wish I were doing more enjoying the moment, but that seems to take decision and planning, almost as much as reaching ‘B’ would… I can tell you that the journey has been more pleasant for the Jack Reacher books (new one coming out in December) along the way, and that I won’t ruin Jack Reacher by watching the movie.
Me neither – what a plonker TC is to think he could even stretch that high…