Question about who joins the Rabble.

[tripleblessed]

My apologies to any who feel this is TMI, the long paragraph is just for perspective. Feel free to skip to the third paragraph for the relevant comment.

In the three months following the 1968 Tet offensive, I made three trips to Naval Station Mayport at the warm invitation of one of my relatives, one Uncle Sam.
During the third trip his assistants took pictures of my spine and told me I would not survive spending more time with him, as the weight of a pack would kill me.
For the first time I understood how much damage multiple trampoline crashes had done to my skeletal system. In the fall of '73 I was lifting 500 hundred pound steel billets off the floor and onto the rollers feeding the furnace on a rolling mill (the only person in the 96 year history of the plant to do it solo). In '76, a scaffold quit on me while hanging scenery in a new theater and the stage floor 20 feet down caught me; broken bones and a pin. '78 and '79, I demonstrated that motorcycles tend to defer to cars. In '83 a ladder decided to take a break, leaving me 27 feet above a concrete floor. Broken ankle and severe disalignment. Later that year some gravel across a hairpin curve escorted me under a guard rail, no one reminded to duck. Concussion and severe cervical damage. In '84, I sold my bikes. Also that year I got the opportunity to spend some time with a Scottish neurosurgeon widely regarded at the time as maybe THE pain specialist on the planet and was told there was no possibility of my body getting out of a bed, and no medical explanation as to how I could stand, much less walk. That if there were on the planet enough pain meds to deal with my pain, the amount required would not allow me to stand anyway. In '91, hit on a bicycle, broken femoral neck, ball went necrotic; was told no way to repair w/o replacement. I made them put pins, they said dead ball won't hold, still is. '99, 240 lbs. of roofing shingles slid down a frosty roof carrying me off the roof with an 80 lb. bundle on my shoulder. At 75, I still put my feet on a hand rail and do 80 pushups in one set and and a hundred more 10
minutes later. All the above may well have something to do with the fact that my first tartan, and most often worn, is my clergy tartan. Clergy since '96.
And as well my interest in healing in various traditions.

It occurs to me that clergy and military folk understand well the power of community and spending time with like-minded people in pursuit of common goals.
X Marks allows us to do that. Broader exposure leads to greater understanding, better relationships, and more satisfaction in our lives. Clergy and military
all too often have direct experience of the power of companions to get us through tough times, and they are more willing to seek that in various forms, such
as this one.

Or not.