I like The King's music, but not enough to have known anything else about him prior to 1985. The night cook on board this sub was a rabid Presley fan and he asked the Executive Officer if he would cancel a scheduled field day (cleaning from stem to stern) since it fell on Elvis' birthday, January 8. The XO said no (of course), then as we got started he got on the 1MC (public address system) and announced (with a chuckle, as I recall) that in light of the special occasion, the "Elvis Presley Memorial Field Day" would be extended two hours in commemoration...
(This same XO, again, as I recall, took great pleasure in announcing to a crew of mostly fully-bearded sailors that Navy policy had changed-- as we were heading into port-- and that no one was getting off the boat with facial hair other than a Navy mustache... The response was something like a sheep-shearing party.)
It's hard for me to believe sometimes that the years are clicking by like miles on an odometer. Thirty-one years ago today I had no knowledge of the pretty female sailor whom I would meet after returning to my base in Japan before the month was out (and who would become my wife 9 months later), I had no attachments to anything or anyone, really, including God. Not that I didn't have faith, mind you. I just took for granted that He was always there, around somewhere, and always would be.
Not only Elvis, but Moses in Psalm 90 (the only psalm attributed to Moses, said to have been composed about 3,500 years ago)-- in particular, verse 12 (ESV): "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom."-- causes me to reflect upon my life, then and now. Thirty-one years ago today I was drifting along the thermals like an untethered balloon-- I scrubbed and buffed on board that submarine oblivious to God's plan for me. It's taken a half-century, but I think I'm finally getting that "heart of wisdom" Moses is talking about.
As I sit at my desk in my classroom looking out at the 16- and 17-year olds working, goofing off, and socializing, I can't help but wonder how they see their world, and if they see God in it anywhere...
Should I tell them what today is? Nahhhh. Elvis Presley is ancient history, so 20th century...
...like most of my life... Gadzooks! Maybe that makes me ancient history, too!
P.S. Another memory from the fall of 1984-- four days before my birthday, during a very short port visit to Yokosuka (Tokyo), I saw a Rush concert at the Budokan. Funny how I can recall that, but I couldn't tell you what I had for dinner last night... ;)
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