2 Minutes. Go!

The day was cold and fraught with misery. The boys were freezing, and that was new to them. They were innocent to many things in the world, and the chill was part of that. They were boys who had grown up with tropical heat pounding ambition out of them. Most of them wanted nothing more than a beach, a good woman, and a full belly. Instead, they got "encouraging" words that discouraged them from dreaming of anything beyond the cold expanse in front of them.

There were few among them who still harbored dreams of glory. They were the dumb ones. In peacetime, they had appeared weak, but in war they were strong. They did not have the rationality to realize their folly. These boys died with smiles on their faces, and it made most of us sick to our stomachs.

As the sun rose, one of the younger boys slipped away from the group. We would never find his body. Most of us believed he was dead. Some believed that he had gone to a great reward. Most realized that he had just had enough. Of the war. Of the cold. 

So, he left.

--=--

JD #2 Be careful what you wish for; be careful what you want. The candy that looks so good might not taste so sweet. That girl you're in love with might be a sociopath or, even worse, a Disney Adult. That guy you're intrigued by could be a closet racist, whether or not he is hot. The green grass looks nice, but you can't tell everything just by looking. Might be sawgrass. Might be a bog. Hell, sometimes you see water in the desert when there is nothing there. There might be broken glass in the grass. You might fall and cut your ass in the grass. Keeping up with the Jones' is an alright strategy if the Joneses never change, but they will, and you will have to keep keeping up, even when you don't want to. Even when it seems impossible. You should probably just become a hermit. It works for some people. It wouldn't work for me, though. I would have to be alone with my own thoughts, and there ain't enough liquor in the world to deal with that. I know. I tried.