Goodbye to Most of That
As some of you know, I spent the past three years serving in the U.S. Army as a bass guitarist, a position that took me on tour across this country and the world. Those three years were up yesterday. As of today I am a free man once again. Tecnically, I am obliged to spend the next five years on the “IRR”, which, depending on who in the Army you ask, stands for either Inactive or Individual Ready Reserve, the semantic difference between which was apparently not important enough to warrant changing the entire acronym. While it is possible for the Army to call me back onto active duty, I honestly can’t foresee any imminent Middle-Eastern bass-playing emergencies that would require my expertise. Regardless, since I am openly (and sometimes radically) queer, I think the likelihood of them dragging me back in are fairly slim unless some monumental policy change takes place, which I’m confident will happen one day, but perhaps not before my contract expires.
Many thanks to all of you who came to the grand welcome home and household hail and farewell yesterday - it was the last and best of its kind. For those of you who couldn’t make it you missed a hell of a time; my old band, Max Power and the Damn Straights played a little reunion show, there was face painting and eight-player MarioKart in the basement, and good vegan food and drink was had by all. I’ll post some recipes from the party later this week. For now I’ll leave you with this quote from Robert Graves, to whose military memoir I humbly allude: “What I most disliked about the Army was never being alone.” The thing is, I am not alone now either, but I no longer crave solitude. I am grateful to be immersed in my present pleasant company. Sacrificing the open expression of my sexuality for three years was difficult, and eating vegetarian in the Army was an ordeal, but never seeing my friends was what pained me the most. At long last, it’s good to be home.
