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Like Ivan Ilyich, So The Military

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With the greatest sense of irony I finished reading Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and watched what was left of a man accept his fate, that is death.  Just an hour earlier I received a phone call from my Navy recruiter who informed me that my request for a waiver had been denied based upon my "excessive myoptic index" or something that sounds like that--I would say something that 'looks like that' but we all know I cannot really see anyway.  Heh.


Long story short?  I'm not going into the military and we're left to find out where we will be going in the future, but not without help from above. 

Before when things were not working out we would have never been sure of our path if the military option had not been barred and now we can be absolutely certain that it was not the path for us.  In a way that is almost as definitive as death we know that there is nothing left to pursue.  Now we shall proceed, but in what direction I cannot be completely sure!  Fiat voluntas Dei.

Here's to hope and a surprising future.

Sources:
Wikipedia: The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
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Location: Wilmington, NC, USA

Comments

  1. ShutterbugJuly 28, 2011 at 1:33 PM

    Good luck to you in your future endeavours, wherever life may take you! :D

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  2. bahgheeraJuly 28, 2011 at 1:36 PM

    I read The Death Of Ivan Ilyitch while I was in the Navy. Weird...

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  3. AndrewJuly 28, 2011 at 2:12 PM

    Thanks, Shutterbug! We're going somewhere, don't worry, and I'm sure it will be good.

    Brian, isn't that strange? It was the strangest story but I found it to be all so terribly honest. I really felt like I was living in his head while reading that book, but I felt sorry that he never expressed himself in an honest way. Perhaps if he had been more honest everyone would have hated him as much as he hated them? At least then it would have been out in the open as opposed to being under the surface...No Navy puns intended :)

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  4. D4July 28, 2011 at 2:43 PM

    You have a positive mood, I'm sure you'll be fine. It's never nice to have one idea and be shunned from it, but everything happens for a reason, right? Best of luck to you!

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  5. my day in a sentenceJuly 28, 2011 at 4:11 PM

    I never read the book. But, you know, I'm a pacifist myself so I'm with you on the not- joining- the- military decision.

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