In the Early Morning Run

I've been introduced to a new kind of music. Army Marching songs. I think it is truly an underrated genre. Marching songs are truly one of the most heart breaking i've heard. My favourite is of course the title of this post. The thing about army songs is, behind all the sentiment behind all the gusto, all the camaraderie, all the bravery. Lies a terrified soldier, thinking of his lover, his family, and closest friends far far away. He marches because its all he knows, he marches onward, and away from the life he once knew. Seeking solace in the mind numbing task that is serving his country with his life.

Behind each and every mundane marching beat, drummed out by the prescision sound of stomping boots, is the devious thought of the things that make us unique. And behind this sense of being a human being, is the even more painful thought that those bits that make you unique, that simple longing to be somewhere else with something that you miss most dearly, is shared equally among each of the soldiers you march side by side with. The devious "under-it-all", your most instinctive fears, and the things that you're most afraid to lose are shared in a most uniform manner among your fellow comarades.

There is this common theme in army songs. Quite alot of them talk about how the distance tears lovers apart. Being far away, booked in, unable to leave and be close by to offer support to the ones you love. I'd assume most people think of this of a physical distance. I believe the distance to be more of an emotional thing. Living in the army is like taking pieces and parts from my secondary school days and lumping them together into some great primordial stew, the existential boliling pot for the formulation of my later years. There are no men in the army, only boys, instead of toys they have guns, instead of fun and games they have PT, and you can almost have that idealism again, because the social rules of army life are so different from the real world.

When you go to the army you're forced to grow, to learn to think and live a certain way. There are some who are always thinking of home, of the place they'd rather be. Somehow in the army you have to give that up, or you'll feel like suicide. In the army you grow apart, because you're forced to grow, and to be more of a man, less of a human being. Maybe somebody will be able to love me for the man that i am, not the person that i once was.

Heres some of the lyrics, thanks mutton. I'll fill in the rest the next time i book out.

in the early morning run
with my full pack on my back
and my shirt is full of sweat
and the aching in my heart
im a long long way from home
and i miss my lover so
in the early morning run
when the cold wind blows
i know i know,
you have to go
so hurry back home
cause i miss you so