Jon's Perspective

I asked Jon to write a little something about his experience of this R&R. Here it is along with some pictures from our evening at the Wild Animal Park on Wednesday. We came home late last night after spending a few hours on the USS Midway and then then the evening at the San Diego Zoo.

Well, my R&R is now over half over, and I'm having a very relaxing time with Sheryl and Joshua. They have been (so far) tolerant of my need to claw my way out of exhaustion and burn out--I've been getting more than ten hours of sleep a night that I've been back, and feeling more and more human every day. However, knowing that the nature of my job will be more physical when I get back, and also knowing that summer time temperatures will be peaking (115 to 120 F by 1500 each day), my tendency is to continue to take it easy, which I think is a little frustrating for them...

My experiences while deployed tend to be catalogued as monochromatic, and my activities and conduct--though always in the context of the pressure cooker of a combat zone--are generally predictable. Consequently, the fundamental activities of life require no decision making: where to eat; when to get up; what to do with leisure time (there is none); laundry, essential purchases, banking (disbursing office), shopping (PX), and other weekly/periodic chores; what to wear...

However, upon arrival here with my family, my experiences are characterized by variety to the extreme, and every activity involves choice and decision. So, for those out there thinking that R&R must naturally be a blissful and relaxing experience (and many of us in the military actually have that expectation), it is actually more stressful than the experience of a staff officer in a combat zone due to the exponential increase in the number of choices requiring decisions (and these decisions must be made quickly, as we are not a culture that values delayed gratification and validates patience and contemplation).

Add to this, of course, the difficulty of picking up where relationships were "left off" six months ago, and further dynamic pressure is bountifully applied to the stress sandwich (OK, I admit there are a lot of mixed metaphors here). However, despite all this, and due to your prayers and support and God's grace, we are enjoying each other and having a positive experiencee. As you can tell from Sheryl's blog entries, we are doing things as a family that we have found to be enjoyable activity in the past, and we are building on those memories with new experience.

I am doing my best to spend as little time on email, etc., as possible, so would appreciate your patience with a lessened amount of communication with you all--I'm trying to put Joshua and Sheryl first. However, please know that I value and treasure your support, your prayers, and am NOT consciously neglecting you--just very consciously focusing on Sheryl, Joshua, and my own needs (perhaps a little selfish, I hope you understand).

Semper Fi, Jarhedjon