My New Job.
-Hawkeye Pierce-
I hate my job. I hate why I have to be here. I hate why I can't leave. I hate that the stiff cots we only get to sleep on 20 hours a week. I hate the powered eggs and God knows what the sausage is made out of that we have for breakfast every morning...
But even more than all of that, I hate the fact that I have to operate on men –boys- just so they can go back to the front, or another MASH unit, or a actual hospital or worse…
The lucky ones get to go home.
Well, the ones who not shipped back in boxes.
People don't know what it's like here. The smart people, the people who know, say "War is hell." Some people just don't listen. They try to glorify it, make it heroic. Which in all respects, can be, in a sense. But the boy won't tell you that. Not all of them. A lot of them are scared shitless…
I don't blame them.
I'm rarely happy here.
Hmm, happy? Ok, well, how about not teetering on the edge of depression.
A martini or to helps but…
Sometimes it's not all bad here. If you can get past the gunfire and bombing, and the then there's the stench of the OR coming from the northeast wind. Southwest is the latrines…
I'd ignore that if I were you.
Well, we do have a 98% survival rate.
So I suppose it could be worse.
Ya know, I don't hate the people who I work with. I don't hate the kids who want to go back and fight. I don't even hate the people who hurt them. Most of them are just taking orders…
I think it was Martian Luther King Jr. who once said "You can't drive darkness out with darkness. Only light can do that. You can't drive hate out with hate. Only love can do that"
I'm pretty sure that's the quote.
You get it.
And I really hope we learn from our mistakes soon…
Because I hate being in the dark.