Seeing the tapestry
My dad should be passing very soon...within the next 24 hours infact. No doubt my next post will be of that. In the meantime, I thought I would share something neat.
The theory of inner-connectiveness has always fascinated me. I have seen it at work in my life, but always in hind sight. We all have. This new job that I am about to start is no different.
Upon getting out of the Navy, I signed up with a firm that helps Vets get civilian jobs. There are several of these organizations but I went with one called Bradley Morris Inc. And they're good. Thanks to them I am been to a couple of job conferences and did very well with the interviews that they set up for me. And with many of the interviews, I got secondary interviews where I went out to the facility itself. However, none of them stuck. They seemed to want more that I was trained for.
One one particular second interview, I had to travel to Harrisonburg, VA. After getting to the hotel I unpacked, unwinded, and decided to go out to a pub across the street. Then a sailor goes on a long deployment, they are given a chance to buy a Cruise Jacket. They come in all varieties from cheap to nice, and contain patches of your choosing as well as your name, your ship, the dates of your cruise, and a list of the ports that you visited and operations that you partook in. It also has the flags of all the contries that you visited on the right sleeve. It kind of looks like a patriotic Nas-Car jacket. Over the years I have notice the appeal of apparent military to the common folk. Wearing your dress uniform at the airport will often get you a lot of "thank you for your service", some unexpected photographs, and sometimes even a bump to first class. The Cruise Jacket, though not as obvious, is similar. I decided to wear my cruise jacket that evening in this non-military town. I had pratical reasons too...it was snowing and this Southern gentleman was cold.
Returning to this hotel I happen to notice someone smoking a cigarette outsid the hotel. He looks at me and says "Nice Cruise Jacket...I use to fly Cobra's in the Marine Corps." "I've worked on those", I said. We struck up a conversation and he asked what a sailor was doing in Harrisonburg. When I told him I was there for a job interview, he has what I did in the Navy. I told him and he told me that he worked for a company called SAIC and they could use people like me. "Here's my card. Send me your resume if your job interview does notwork out."
A few months later, here I am. I think the chances of that meeting, being where I was and wearing what I was, is highly improvable. Some may call it God, some inner connectedness. Robert Jordan fans would call it the Turning of the Wheel of Time. Perhaps all are correct. It's just really neat to see it.
The theory of inner-connectiveness has always fascinated me. I have seen it at work in my life, but always in hind sight. We all have. This new job that I am about to start is no different.
Upon getting out of the Navy, I signed up with a firm that helps Vets get civilian jobs. There are several of these organizations but I went with one called Bradley Morris Inc. And they're good. Thanks to them I am been to a couple of job conferences and did very well with the interviews that they set up for me. And with many of the interviews, I got secondary interviews where I went out to the facility itself. However, none of them stuck. They seemed to want more that I was trained for.
One one particular second interview, I had to travel to Harrisonburg, VA. After getting to the hotel I unpacked, unwinded, and decided to go out to a pub across the street. Then a sailor goes on a long deployment, they are given a chance to buy a Cruise Jacket. They come in all varieties from cheap to nice, and contain patches of your choosing as well as your name, your ship, the dates of your cruise, and a list of the ports that you visited and operations that you partook in. It also has the flags of all the contries that you visited on the right sleeve. It kind of looks like a patriotic Nas-Car jacket. Over the years I have notice the appeal of apparent military to the common folk. Wearing your dress uniform at the airport will often get you a lot of "thank you for your service", some unexpected photographs, and sometimes even a bump to first class. The Cruise Jacket, though not as obvious, is similar. I decided to wear my cruise jacket that evening in this non-military town. I had pratical reasons too...it was snowing and this Southern gentleman was cold.
Returning to this hotel I happen to notice someone smoking a cigarette outsid the hotel. He looks at me and says "Nice Cruise Jacket...I use to fly Cobra's in the Marine Corps." "I've worked on those", I said. We struck up a conversation and he asked what a sailor was doing in Harrisonburg. When I told him I was there for a job interview, he has what I did in the Navy. I told him and he told me that he worked for a company called SAIC and they could use people like me. "Here's my card. Send me your resume if your job interview does notwork out."
A few months later, here I am. I think the chances of that meeting, being where I was and wearing what I was, is highly improvable. Some may call it God, some inner connectedness. Robert Jordan fans would call it the Turning of the Wheel of Time. Perhaps all are correct. It's just really neat to see it.