“Once, when I was a young lieutenant …”
My kids give me a hard time when I use that line. They groan at the same time they lean forward because they know a good story is about to unfold. 25-year-old me did some wild stuff in my battle dress uniform days.
And as we walked into the movie theatre for Top Gun: Maverick this weekend, I knew I was bringing young Lt. Darsh with me inside … and knew that I needed to make some mental adjustments.
Because being in the military changes military movies for you … forever.
You love the emotional undercurrent — the ideals, the willingness to fight for what you believe in, the teamwork — but you see the flaws in the details and the outright lies. You have to train your eye (while you’re watching) to focus on the story and not get hung up on the details. Sort of like America right now.
Top Gun: Maverick
But Top Gun: Maverick was a thrilling movie to watch in Screen X Cinema! (Have you watched a movie in Screen X? It was my first!) And of course it starred Tom Cruise — the Olive Garden of actors. Never terrible, never outstanding. He is warm human breadsticks and seemingly endless.
And oh the memories that movie stirred! Even just hearing fighter jets again threw my entire body into goosebumps.
I could feel my 25-year-old self in uniform out on that fighter flightline, leading 300 wrench-turners by day and raising hell all other hours — young Lt. Darsh living life on the edge, always taking the dare, trying desperately to find out what she was made of.
I guess I’m still trying to find out what I’m made of … but I’m not so desperate about it anymore.
Some days I know. Some days I’m still not so sure. It’s all okay with me now — this is one of the marvelous things about aging.
Proud to Be an American?
But it was good to experience 25-year-old me again, to walk around in those flight boots for a little while, to remember what it was like to believe in America so much that I was literally willing to give my life.
Because I’ve struggled a little bit lately with being an American.
The rest of the world looks at us like we’ve lost our minds — and sometimes I don’t feel so proud of what our nation has become. We’ve got a lot of problems and a substantial amount of work to do.
But I still think we can find our way to being a great nation.
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