I look at a lot of old pictures of soldiers taken 30, 40, 50 years ago and I wonder what was going through their mind at that particular moment. It’s likely their thoughts were no different from ours. Men on tanks, young lads on planes, rucks of soldiers kicking up dirt with every footfall. Headed into some kind of battle. All part and parcel of the great human condition. Where are they now? Have they gone on? And I look at pictures of myself, of my friends, and veterans that I don’t even know and I wonder where will we be in 30, 40 or 50 years…

Have we all done something to make the world a better place? Will some young boy one day look at old pictures of us and be inspired to get out of the daily routine of his young life and join a service?

Despite the glamorization of the military we often present to the world the military can be a grist mill to the spirit at times. Regardless of your sentiments, whether you are for it or against, after having served, I grok you.

Grok?

Yeah. Grok.

If you follow ol’ Robert Heinlein the science fiction writer of Stranger in a Strange Land or Starship Troopers, ‘Grok’ means to understand someone so “thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science and it means as little to us as color does to a blind man.”

Simply it means that despite our differences, I can understand you and that I call you brother. Hail if I see you. Farewell if you go. When we die, and follow the hounds into the hollows, and the great spirit into the glen, where Mead flows and delivers a river of happiness to all who drink of it know that I wish you well. I call you brother. Honor to you for putting your skin into the game, whether you be a fireman or police officer or a medic making a damn difference in this sometimes bad world. I grok you.

*The views and opinions expressed on this website are solely those of the original authors and contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Spotter Up Magazine, the administrative staff, and/or any/all contributors to this site.

*Robert A. Heinlein originally coined the term grok in his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land as a Martian word that could not be defined in Earthling terms, but can be associated with various literal meanings such as “water”, “to drink”, “life”, or “to live”, and had a much more profound figurative meaning that is hard for terrestrial culture to understand because of its assumption of a singular reality.

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*The views and opinions expressed on this website are solely those of the original authors and contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Spotter Up Magazine, the administrative staff, and/or any/all contributors to this site.