[pwd72s]

"4.0) I am alive and there is a meaning to life

Think of the joy of driving a fast car well, at high speed on a twisty mountain road. Feeling alive, awake and indestructable, with no traffic in the early morning after having had a good meal, good wine, twenty year old malt whisky and perhaps barely sober enough to drive. Two tipsy, laughing female passengers both sitting in the front seat. Certainly not legal, certainly dangerous. And certainly memorable fun." -Milu


Think of the year 1969...you are a country bumpkin from Orygun. You have a new 912, and you'd promised to pick up a buddy whenever/wherever he got out of the army. You're 25. You don't understand the geography of the SF bay area. You are white. Your new 912 is white. You'd contracted a couple of white, and "blonde" hookers. The three of you are driving to your buddy's discharge station at 2:00 AM on a Sunday morning. Along the way, it begins to dawn on you where "Oakland Army Terminal" really is! There are no cop cars about...because the cops are smart enough to avoid that area after dark. You begin to run every red light. Not because you're a badass, because you're too scared to stop. You make it to the terminal, spot your buddy, and say: "Hi Tony, ready to rejoin the civilian life?" He responds. "HELL YES!", and jumps in the 912...now 4 people strong, we leave Oakland the same way I entered, running the lights....hurrying back to a San Francisco hotel.

"I am alive, and there is a meaning to life"...I think Tony understood it better than I did then...he'd just returned from hell. The poor guys being shipped out? They still had things to learn...if they survived the experience.