A coworker in the Navy warned me shortly after I got back that it would take about three months for me to settle down from my deployment mindset and get back into “normal” life. I think that’s more or less true, although to be honest I think I’ve simply discovered a new sense of normality rather than returned to my old one. What I know now about the Navy and life in general simply can’t be un-known.
I’m going to talk about the Jonestown Massacre, but before I do I’d like you all to remember the book that most of us read during junior or senior year lit class in high school, Catcher in the Rye. For those who don’t remember, it’s a book about a kid who gets expelled from his upscale preparatory school and then wanders aimlessly in New York City for a few weeks until his parents come to collect him for the New Year holiday. He spends a great deal of time ranting about how everyone is a phony, and it’s all just a big, fake charade.