Don’t Believe The Hype
1/11/12
If a person who is from the country atmosphere or that came from a third world country would have the opportunity to see the glitter and glamour of the fast paced modern world, of course they would be awe-struck and probably would have a hard time comprehending what was actually taking place around them. For us that live in the modern society and experience this style of behavior, it seems like a commonality between all parties involved. But to what extent are we let down when we realize that this life that we embrace as normal offers us nothing in return but worn out shoes.
No matter what you read on the internet, see in the news, or hear on the radio it all revolves around the pomp and circumstance of the modern world. Even the technology that we believe we need to function contributes to this belief and enables our minds to function in a capacity that in itself is mind boggling. We have learned to thrive in this lifestyle without having to motivate ourselves to complete the day. It is exciting for us to brag about how busy our day was or what party we are going to after work or how long we plan on dancing at the club tonight, but are these things considered the necessities of life that we need to live?
How many of us actually take a few minutes at the end of our work day and look back to see the accomplishments that we have made over the past few hours. What about the same question but over our work week? I can guarantee that all of have looked back at our work day and said “get me out of here” or something to that effect. We toil at our jobs and go home beat down and tired and not willing to let the day go without a fight before we go to bed; oh yeah, tomorrow.
We finally get a day off and what do most of us do….go, go, go. Our days off are so filled with activities, chores, and other things to be done that we do not even have the opportunity to enjoy our time away from work or to enjoy time with our families. Our entertainment schedule becomes the highlight of our time away that we spend so much energy towards getting prepared for the big event that we forget to relax and give ourselves time to slow down and take in the moment, which will not come around again for a while.
After the day or week is done, what do we have left? An empty shell of a body that is so tired that it cannot think straight has nothing to look forward to but a bed to lie in and prepare for the next day. Our minds turn to the events and schedule of tomorrow and how we are going to complete all of the known tasks that are assigned to us. And then it hits us, we forgot to call our mother and wish her a happy birthday!! We look at our watch and it is too late to call now.
It was 1988 and I was living in Camden, Arkansas with my parents and working at the local hospital in the emergency room. I had made the decision to join the military and was waiting for my turn to leave for basic training. Weekly check-ins with my recruiter continued to uplift my hopes as time drew nearer and nearer. Daily workout activities continued to prepare me for the physical aspects of basic training but what I was not being told about was the mental aspect that those six weeks would have on my bearing.
November rolled around and I was off to Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas. I arrived late in the afternoon and was met by a representative from the USAF. Myself and about 15 other guys and girls were escorted to a small holding room and left there for what seemed days. A couple of hours later and the door opened and a few more joined our party; a quick head count and then the representative left us once again. A sudden knock on the door and two MPs came in and told us to stand up and get ready to leave. We then formed two lines and walked out to the bus.
Day one of basic training had just begun and boy was it different. We were met at the bus by a very large man wearing a military uniform and a smokey the bear hat. He did not say much but yelled a lot. We got on the bus and it was clear that the mental games had begun. He took another head count and then told the driver to leave the area; within a few minutes we were at the main gate of the Air Force Base. We were then ambushed by six other drill instructors that hitched a ride with us to the processing center.
The processing center time went smoothly and after a short while another group arrived and sat down next to us. In all there were about two hundred of us in the room before the proceedings began. One by one the people at the front called out names and sent those people off into different directions. We were being assigned our flight numbers and told which bus to take and pointed into the direction of the appropriate bus. At this bus was when we met the drill instructor that would be over us for six weeks of training. We did not meet his friends until we got to the squadron overhang; that is when the “fun” stuff began.
Oh the funny lines that were begin thrown out across the individual flights, they were hilarious but you dared not laugh for if you did an entire group of instructors would descend upon you and would rake you over the coals. It was well after midnight when we were allowed to get to bed, but as we climbed into our bunks we noticed that there were many beds still empty; these would be filled by the remaining members of our flight at about 0200 in the morning.
A couple of days passed and the pace began to increase a bit and the mind games continued at a soaring level. Do this and do that and you have no time to complete these things and complaints about how you did them when you thought you were finished. Bed checks produced garbage cans rolling down the center aisle and how the drill instructors would love to through clothes all over the bay. All of this activity was being dished out for a purpose, to bring us into a collective so that we would operate and function as one unit. For the military purposes this is a wonderful thing and it teaches us to function in this manner so that we stay alive when times are bad. But until recently have I realized that this method of training is actually how the world institutionalizes our lives into functioning in this fast paced capacity.
Then…hard times set in, we got a new drill instructor that believed he was God and he let us know about his authority from the moment he walked into the room. I am not going to dwell on his name or any personal feature of this man but even though it has been almost 25 yrs ago, I can even remember the color of his eyes. He calmly walked through our day room throwing people around and slapping them in the face and I will never forget the huge fireman that was in our flight that he punched right in the stomach and then began to berate him after he found out his vocation. All of this was part of the training, but we did not see it this way.
Our flight, instead of coming together literally fell apart and we began to argue amongst ourselves. Our squad leaders were constantly yelling at us and always in turmoil with the dorm chief. Now we had to deal with angry squad leaders and a dorm chief that was nuts, in my opinion. It was at this time that we began to look at ourselves and wonder if we had made the correct decision about joining the military.
As the next few days passed, tensions grew between our drill instructor and some of our flight members. His brutality was becoming a problem to some and talk began of turning him in for abuse. Many suggestions were made in squad meetings and then given to the dorm chief for action. The eventual decision was made that we would report him to the Major and see what would become of the situation.
BAD MISTAKE!!!!! The one thing that we had not learned yet is that people in the military, no matter what the circumstances are, do NOT abandon their friends in time of need. Boy, almost immediately we had a hornet’s nest of angry drill instructors breathing down our throats. They tore our bay apart and then got mad J It was not a pretty sight at all and it was all because we could not see the hype that had been built around us; we fell apart and fell down on the job.
Being last in line for chow or showers became annoying and frustrating. Being laughed at and scoffed at by the other drill instructors when they pass by became a game to them, we were the lowest of the low and it seemed that no redemption was possible. Flight 071 had its reputation all around the squadron, but what we did not realize was that it was all part of the training and that one day soon things would look brighter.
It was not until 4 weeks into basic training that things began to change and the truth about our flight began to be claimed. The flight begin to think about all of the activities that we had done and how much we had been through, it seemed quite a bit to be honest but we deserved it. We realized that we fell into a trap created by our instructors to get us to act and react to difficult situations. We believed the hype that they created and how cleverly, or stupidly on our part, they incorporated it into the entire squadron.
At this same time, our instructors began to praise some of the activities that we completed, but their heavy handed control over our moves was still evident on a personal level. While they are beginning to accept us as airmen, their authority continued to under mind any thought we had that we “had arrived”. The name calling and shouting began to calm down but the phrases still filled our ears throughout the day.
I remember when the entire flight realized the entire plan that the instructors had constructed for us. We were marching along to the medical facility to receive our final shots when our drill instructor commanded us to halt. He put us “at ease” for a few moments. To our front we could see a rainbow flight approaching. A rainbow flight is a flight that the recruits have not received their military uniforms yet and the members are still in their civilian clothes.
There is a formal drill called “eyes right” that can be performed while a flight or squadron is marching. This procedure usually is done under formal conditions as in parades or at graduation. However, on this day our instructor had other plans for this drill exercise. As the other flight approached our instructor noticed to which side the approaching flight was taking, which in a few seconds they would pass on our right. As the rainbow flight approached our drill instructor placed us at attention. When the flight was a few paces from our squad leaders, our instructor gave the command for “eyes left”. All of us turned our heads to the left as the rainbow flight passed. After the flight passed our instructor gave the command for “eyes forward” and then again brought us to “at ease”.
He then proceeded to inform us that the reason that he gave that specific command was so that we would not get any ideas into our heads and begin to mess the flight up again as we were when we were considered a young flight. I put this part of the story here because Satan will remind us of where we have come from and will try to burden us with the details of our past.
How many times have we subjected ourselves to these same terrifying conditions in our daily lives? The world loves to call us names and beat us down; it is the way the world responds to our existence in its presence. How else are we to behave when we believe that the world owns our every move and forces us to conform to its posture and serve its molecular crazes? What specific conditions form this world that we live in such that we are consumed in its environment, totally engrossed as to blind us from the path that we have chosen? It is the broad path of self that has brought us to this place, and this self that has become our destiny in this world.
The basic training scene provides us with a similarity of how life and the world treat us. There are so many activities that are ongoing and we watch them as we pass by and wonder if we will ever make to that level in society and how long it will take us to reach that place. We run and run our lives at a pace that is not healthy for our bodies and minds all while keeping our eyes on what we might have in the future. While accomplishing this task for prominence we forget to take care of the details that should be the defining details in our lives and not the ones we remember as our heads hit the bed each night.
The hype that the world brings to our lives can easily be missed by us just as the hype was missed by all of us in basic training. It is our duty to ignore this hype and keep focused on the goals that are set before us. When the hype is found out not to be true, we feel cheated and robbed of our time and our emotions. We as humans place so much value in being accepted and doing a good job that we tend to forget that the world we are trying to impress actually ignores us and spits us out after the fake hype has been revealed. We feel used and dirty at the end of the day for what, so that we can perform the same duties the next day?
Don’t believe the hype that the world tries to form into your life, but keep your eye steady on God’s word and the plan that He has for your life. It is a guarantee that this world and everything that it stands for will let you down and when it does it will not care one bit about you or the condition that you are left in when it leaves. All of us have fit into this category, all of us go through this process every day, and all of us understand that we have to compete in this environment to earn a living but it is a must that we do not fall into the scheme of hype that blind us from life itself.
There is good news!!! We do not have to conform to the world’s drumbeat and we do not have to transform our lives to this worldly order. God has provided a restoration plan that will earn us peace and tranquility in life. This plan will bring back everything that the world has stolen from us and give us rest that is beyond our imagination. All we have to do is accept His ways and live for Him each day and God will provide a way that would have never been possible before. Don’t listen to the wide path that the world has to offer, it may look good as we are passing by but in the long run it is a deadly game that we should have no part in playing. Restore yourself to the one true God and He will see fit to renew your life abundantly.
End Note:
Three days before we were to graduate from basic training, we had a flight picture taken with all of our drill instructors and any other squadron personnel that had charge over us. We had a sign in front of us with all of our flight information on it. Along with our flight information, each flight was required to have a motto that defined their stay while at basic training, ours was easy to come up with and it was a unanimous vote “Don’t Believe The Hype”. I still remember that phrase and I also remember that picture that was taken on that day. This message came to me while I was listening to a song that I was playing on the internet; you never know when God is going to speak J
End Note 2:
In no way do I consider the military a bad experience or harsh in any way. I am just using this example of the relation that we have with hype and how it can affect our decisions when we do not recognize it. I loved my time in the military and do recommend that option to all young people of this country.
DLB
No comments:
Post a Comment