Jupiter trines to the 8th house alive and well. The soldier and I on the phone last night…

“Does she know about Iran and the hostages?” I asked. I was talking about a friend of his who is now reading my blog.

“No one knows about that,” he said. “I don’t tell anyone that.”

“Oh, well I do. I wrote about on my blog,” I said, both embarrassed and amused.

“That’s on your blog?”

“Yeah,” I said, trying so suss out his reaction but having no clue. It’s the Neptune effect. The man is in the tree line until and unless he decides to reveal himself. “Yeah, I told that story. It’s a good story about all you don’t know and it ought to be told so of course I told it.”

“Yeah?”

I laughed at his non-response. “Yeah, see I like you trained. I like all your Special Forces training. I think it has enhanced you,” I said.

“Well thanks, P.”

“You’re welcome. See you were supposed to be ruined by that training but as a matter of fact it hasn’t changed you one bit. You are the same man I knew but just incredibly, phenomenally trained which I like. It’s like your muscles. When I first saw a picture of you I was shocked. You were skinny when we met so you’ve changed tremendously on that front and I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or what.”

“Yeah, I was afraid you wouldn’t like me.”

“Well I do like you. I love you. Turns out I like your muscle self more than your skinny self and this holds across the board when it comes to the changes in you. You are exactly the same except better. You give me the same feelings I had when we we kids, a thrill and all that. I feel terrific around you but besides that you have been enhanced by your life and your training and your career. Not everyone can say that. Some people get beaten down by their life. Their life has a negative effect.”

He agreed.

“Yeah, so all your Special Forces training has enhanced you from my perspective. It just can’t be beat, having access to someone like you and the things you know. It is exceedingly valuable. I feel lucky to know you and there is no price at all. You pay a price for your career but I pay no price at all. Pure benefit.”

“What price do I pay?”

“You are full of shrapnel for one thing. Or maybe you have a nightmare or something but I pay no price at all. I’m not having nightmares. I don’t have shrapnel. I do nothing but benefit and learn from you. You have no idea how much I learn from you so this turned out 180 degrees from how I was told it would,” I said. “It was supposed to be very bad but in fact it is inordinately good. You would be much less than you are without your training and experience. I don’t know what you would be instead but it would be less than what you are for sure.”

“And that’s why we’re not listening to people ever again,” he said.

“Right. You’ve just got to find things out for yourself don’t you? But yeah, I wrote that story. What the hell? I wrote it. I sure did, along with a bunch of other things I think are interesting. This is what I do every day as you know. Anyway, she may read that now and a bunch of other stuff so be ready. I am sorry it’s like this but this is our life, right? What can we do, this is the people we are.”