Talking with strangers can be so palliatively palliative. Catholics do it with strange priests and people on planes yak sometimes to each other when the mood strikes. I have never been to a hairdresser... Been cutting my own hair for 40 years ... Yes. It certainly shows!
The horror syndrome catches up with its prey in all cases and ***** will be having her share of the horrors. They manifest themselves in both familiar and strange manner, and no one seems to have the all-encompassing method for alleviating the horrors...all we have are palliatives and maybe a few more hairdressers are what ***** may need ... at even the most ludicrous of times...like pregnancy demanding sugar at the odd hours of the night!
I know that many soldiers retreat from civilian life... I have been in both the navy and the army and I have that awkward contempt for the way civilians fuck things up. There is a gulf that returning soldiers must jump if there is to be a connection with civilian life. It's the job of you two and *****' friends to absorb as much of her horror without being patronising. Then she can connect without that sense of betraying her fellow soldiers who remain in the field. The horrors serve to connect her with war and to soften the sense of betrayal.
Returning soldiers suffer the break from their war; it's withdrawal symptoms resemble the melancholy of the drug addict's withdrawal. They must be reassured that they have done their duty and that the nation supports them and their fellow soldiers who remain in the field. This is what civilians do not understand:
***** has undergone a double whammy of duty... To be there and to experience the results of being there...to be at war! She has seen the tragedy at its most solemn and its impact will be indelible.
I feel for you blokes now.
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