USMC Second Lieutenant Bar
My father was a Marine. Actually, he was a ‘by-god Marine!’ But one facet of his Marine-ness was that he was a “Mustang”.
In the Marine Corps, a Mustang is an officer who was an enlisted man (or woman, now) at first. My father received a battlefield commission during his first tour of duty in VietNam. We started eating better, dressing better and driving better cars, then.
One of his favorite jokes was about a Marine enlisted man and a Marine officer who were classmates and hadn’t seen each other in years, who met at the wedding of a friend.
Beers were thrown back. Stories were exchanged. Old cheerleaders were admired and a great many lies were told. It was, then, a perfect party. In the course of time, they each visited the Men’s room.
The enlisted man stood at a urinal and did his business, zipped-up and walked over to the door to wait for his friend.
The officer stood at a urinal, did his business, zipped-up and walked to the sinks to wash his hands. Then he headed for the door and his friend.
“Didn’t the Marines teach you to wash your hands after you pee?” asked the officer.
“No, they taught us not to piss on our fingers” came the reply.
The moral, in case you missed it, is that the little voice in everyone’s head is internally consistent. It all makes perfect sense to them, at that time.
It can be useful to try to remember this as you navigate the rockier shoals of Life. In most cases, the people you will disagree with think they’re being perfectly reasonable. It may be well to consider this before you decide if this or that argument is the hill you want to die on.
