Where'd everybody go?

  Over the years I've met a lot of people from different nationalities and ways of thinking; by doing so I've learned to accept different ways, different concepts.  These unique visions have enabled me to be able to understand the ultimate alien species, the woman pretty well.  I'm able to.. add it all together so-to-speak; at least better than most guys anyway, from what I can tell.  I was pretty moronic at age 21 but the USAF helped me to get a nice Chex-Mix bag of regional diversity.  I warrant a lot of guys back in Methuen, MA ever had a chance to understand why bacon seems to be in every vegetable dish in the South, or why the Midwest loves white gravy on burritos, or Californians seemingly must have avocado on every sandwich.  I've travelled a lot too, across the US and abroad.  I guess this makes me worldly at least to some degree.  At age 42 there are few scientific mysteries or unsolved riddles of the universe for me, though faster-than-light communications seems puzzling:  if only Hyperspace existed, or does it?

  Of all these people I've met, I've lost a lot of them.  Oh, not by death, but by just having to move around a lot.  Being in Space Command I've felt my life has been a bit more "exotic and strange" than most, though I'm sure there are far more stranger lives out there, indeed!  A little Rush quote from the song Mission off of the album Hold Your Fire, "..their lives were exotic and strange, they would likely gladly exchange them for something a little more sane, maybe something a little more plain."  It's interesting because this attitude is not shared by my other fellow "Space Kiddettes" in their "Space Jammies"(now being phased-out in exchange for ABUs, a shame, really, and the end of a legacy thanks to that in-charge moron I worked with at GPS.. never a good leader, that one, though I'm sure he'd like to think otherwise).  Sadly, those in Space Command think it just another job.  Sure, we balk at the TV commercials for AF Space Command as if that's how it really is.  I personally performed manned spaceflight collision avoidance at Cheyenne Mountain from 1997 to 1999 and it was not like that commercial.  Usually the officers were asleep, drool dripping onto their desks not knowing what was going on while I informed NASA of incoming rocket-bodies, etc.  Shrug.  Most of the officers I've known in Space Command get out and sell used cars.  Most of the enlisted are still doing what they were doing before but at Lieutenant General pay (taxes are a bitch at that rate, btw).  I suspect once they get out, they'll reminisce of the "good ol' days" like those Vietnam vets looking back at their 3-year assignment with one deployment close to almost actual Vietnam, or those high-school football quarterbacks that "could've made State", holding on to that one glimmer of glory, the rest of their lives a droll epilogue.
  So, it brings me to wonder where all these guys I knew went to.  Well, before Putin's mobsters seized Facebook (it was for sale after all, and relatively cheap for data-mining and facial recognition software, now all owned by the Russians, that's right, Russia has a picture of you and knows where you live now, and what site you went to right after Facebook, and where your kids are, etc., especially if you're in the military, then send all that data to the highest bidder after they're done raping your identity.. THANKS, FACEBOOK!)  Er, I digress.  Anyway, I've noticed a majority have moved on to Dull City.  They never achieved Greatness.  They never saved any lives or did anything significant.  A lot of 'em had kids and got fat.  I guess that's the American Dream now, that and Tweeting on an iPhone, L01, becoming Digital Caligulas, all of them, clicking LIKE.. or worse still, not clicking LIKE. 
  I'm sad for those I've known.  I really wish any of them get more passion for life and do something intense.  Taking your kids to Disney World is not really that big a deal.  Well, actually it's a bit insane-chaotic so I guess maybe it is, as I was taken there at age 11 and yeah, it was pretty cool, though it was only for an afternoon, I still remember it vividly.. the clown that grabbed me behind the porta-potties, the calliope music distorting slowly, that clown nose getting closer to my face, smelling of gin and cheap cigarettes as I blacked out, only waking many years later behind a 7-11 dumpster wearing torn lederhosen, a wig, and lipstick.  And a flight-cap.  Oh, just kidding.
  Facebook was a nice tool to peek into their universes and see how they were all doing.  Fat?  Check.  Parents?  Check.  Dead-end job?  Check.  Dreams unfulfilled?  Check.  Rather a dark future, almost Future Noir for most of 'em.  Not all  of them, which gives me hope.  I want them all to do well, not settle for crap!  I want them to seize Life by her ballz and WIN!  Record a song.  Get a Corvette.  Buy a house.  Champion a cause.  I hate it when I see parents live vicariously through their children, "I had a shitty life but I'll make damned sure you will get it right this time!" .. and then they buy their kids an iPhone with unlimited texting and entitle them to trophies for participation in something because in schools, everyone's a winner.  Can't wait until they realize the Truth of Life.  Maybe kids need to sit under Yggdrasil a while.  The Wheel perpetuates itself, parents.  Acorn falls mighty close to the tree and pushing as hard as you might, the kid is predisposed to be just like you.. exactly.  Despite all you try.  SO.. you might want to be a hero yourself instead of making your kid be a hero, then at least the kid has a role model worth a darn.  You want your kid to tell the other kids, "My mom/dad's coooool!!!"  Like Betty White.  Do it.  NOW.

Note*  With all the links, this post took me 1 hour 29 minutes!  Ah, wasted time.  ;D