If anyone out there has read James Jones,

he wrote about the evolution of a soldier.

The final stage is anonymity. It is a part of the reason I am going to be buried at sea when my time comes.

I had a Christmas chat with a relative and he plans on being planted at the family grave site out in the western part of the county and get his name on the family head stone.

I think he wants a spot somewhere with something carved in stone so people will know he existed.

I told him I preferred the anonymity of being buried at sea.

When the sea swallows my casket it will be in a state that it never has been in before and never will be again. The sea is fluid and dynamic. It moves constantly. It will swallow me up and I will disappear.

Unless some clown decides to put a marker up somewhere I will have attained the final stage in what Jones calls the evolution of a soldier. I will have achieved anonymity.

There will be no physical evidence that I ever existed.

My relative looked at me curiously.

"You ain't no lifer," he said.

"Most career military never truly evolve into soldiers," I replied, simply.

He looked off and thought about it for a while.

"You're probably right," he said.

"On earth all life evolves from the sea," I said. "When I am buried there I will have come full circle."







To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY