"We're paratroopers, we're supposed to be surrounded."

I went camping Friday night. It was one of the highlights of this spring thus far. Although it was not camping as I tend to interpret it (Load everything into back packs, hike into remote location, pump-filter water, pooping in a hole in the ground while leaned against a rock or stump and hope nobody walks by and no animals decided to investigate the scent, etc.), it did contain an element not found often before and quite enjoyable — girls. So what if we slept on mattresses (the real kind you have in your room right now) less than 10 feet from our cars and watched a movie on someones laptop, it was fun. I'd do it again in a second, just next time I won't sleep on the downhill edge of the matress (I either rolled or was "nudged" off on to the dirt 10+ times through the course of the night). Most of all I enjoyed just being in the outdoors, sitting in nature and looking up at the stars. If i think about the vastness of the world and the the universe for too long it starts to freak me out. But I love thinking about it right up to that point.

And so after being in the "wilderness" all night, why not watch some war movies, eh? Heath has been talking about the World War II HBO series "Band of Brothers" he got on DVD and so he let Ty and I borrow the first three disc Saturday. By the Sunday night we had finished 'em. That series is so incredible. It makes you want to stand up get a gun and enlist in the Army. That is until you see this guy with a leg full of shrapnel and then another dude, probably only 18 years old, gets shot right in the neck and chokes on his own blood until he dies. Then you sit back down and are filled with a sort of awe and amazement at what these guys were called on to do and then did. I really am grateful to have what others have sacrificed to maintain.

I was also reminded of my time as a missionary in Hong Kong. No I didn't ever shoot anyone, watch a buddy bleed to death, or hold my on bloody insides in my hands (Well maybe I did feel like i was holding my bloody pride in my hands a few times). But there was the organization, the leadership, the comradery and brotherhood, and a purpose (greater than myself) that several thousand other men boys just like me were engaged in all over the world. But perhaps most of all was that same feeling of being asked to do things well beyond my comfort zone and even my abilities, and somehow making them happen — successfully. One of the tag-lines for the series was:

"There Was A Time When The World Asked Ordinary Men To Do Extraordinary Things"

Yeah, extraordinary.