Encouragement
A few weeks ago, I attended another exciting, intense, and educationally filled conference.
Joy.
I had wanted to take along my good camera, but the battery was dead and I couldn’t find the battery charger. So, I said to my wife, “Wife, I’m not going to bother taking the other smaller digital camera (the one that takes really great pictures). After all, I’m only going to Portland—in October.
My first morning—ever—in Portland greeted me with sunshine. I had heard that this was rare in the Northwest. However, from the eighth floor I was nearly blinded by the brightness emanating from what I thought were a row of sugar maples – red, orange – beautiful.
Beyond this row of trees, there was a spectacular city skyline. Beyond it - a bridge spanning a river that I later learned was the Willamette. Of course, that was nothing I would actually want a picture of to say, remember my trip to Portland. Nah.
And, oh yeah, from the other side of the hotel on a clear day one could actually see from a peak that the locals call Mount Hood or something like that. Who would want a picture of that?
The conference was winding down to a close by Friday afternoon. For unknown reasons, Homeland Security or some other alphabet soup organization decided to play terrorist games on the guests of Portland as well as all the citizens who work downtown.
They stretched some yellow do-not-cross-or-I’ll-taser-you-bro tape everywhere. Half of our group was trapped in the mall across the street—forced to drink Starbucks coffee and eat Cinnabons.
Other hotel guest were trapped in the lobby walking around half crazed because they just want to go back home to Toledo —assuming that people who live there actually want to return.
Our leaders eventually made the command decision to press on – that’s what they kept saying. “Let’s press on”. So we did – with one-half of our attendees.
But, just before lunch we were lectured by a happy-go-lucky medical examiner - Air Force guy. Medical examiner with PowerPoint slides – just before lunch. I couldn’t wait.
I am guessing that trial defense attorneys need to see various crime scenes with various internal organs along with explanations as to why these organs were in this slide and not safely and comfortably ticking away in the internal confines of its owner – but I don’t understand why.
I do not want to see organs before I eat lunch – or any other time for that matter.
But that wasn’t all. We all got to see – and it was really nice of him to include this – the intricate color details of a full body autopsy; not to be confused with a necropsy, i.e., the slicing and dicing of a dead animal that contains, say a partially digested dead human (final slide), but I digress.
Maybe we can get him next year again.
Now, a fellow Army friend had warned me that folks in the northwest were very anti-Southern. He said he was walking behind some local Army guys at a conference a few years ago and overheard their conversation ridiculing people from the South. Not southern Washington or California either mind you.
So I have this bit of information in the back of my mind while I am walking out of the hotel towards the adjacent mall for lunch. As I walked (in uniform), a girl’s voice from across the street yelled, “hey.” I did not look. I don’t usually respond unless the request is a little more specific to me like, “hey Paul,” or “hey Army dude,” or “hey moron.”
But on the third “hey” I turned and saw two girls on the other side of the street on a sidewalk by a beautiful park. Now that she had my attention, she yelled “thank you.”
I was ashamed for not turning sooner.
There were four or five more times during the conference that someone would tap me on the shoulder and say thank you for your service.
Maybe next time I’ll bring a camera.
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The title of your post caught my eye since I live in the Pacific Northwest. Glad you liked the area--it's the best place in the world in my very-biased oppinion. Oh, and we like Southerners fine. ;-) Come back any time.
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