I can’t help myself. When I see someone in uniform in an airport this time of year, I want to rush right up to them and wish things on them.
I don’t just want to wish them a safe flight and a free beer and a whispered thanks for their service. I want to make wishes that would change their lives for the better. Here are a few things I wish for our military members this year.
1. I wish that you would wake up to a really awesome boss.
I don’t wish that you woke up to a slacker boss who is taking up space or a micromanaging boss who apparently wants to do their job and your job too. I wish on you the kind of boss who sees you as a collection of awesome strengths held together with brains and a little moxy. I wish on you a boss who sees how to make you the best you can be.
2. I wish you were allowed to do your job.
Every time I read a story this year about the military and the latest social ill, I found myself wishing you were just allowed to do your job and only your job. I wish you could be an uncapitalized army or a navy or force in the air or guard of the coast or band of Marines (Geez, at the last second I just couldn’t write that word without a capital M.) I wish on you the ability to be judged simply by how well you did the job you were trained to do. Period.
3. I wish you a paradise.
I was just reading that there are three things that make a paradise: 1) someone to have sex with you. 2) A family to cherish you (which I hope would include the beloved one who just had sex with you). And, 3) intellectual stimulation.
If you have all three of those things, you are supposed to have paradise. If you have two of those things you have happiness. If you have only one or none of those things you have a bit of a problem. I’m wishing all three on everyone in uniform right now.
4. I wish the economy would improve.
I wish the economy would improve so much that you could make your decision to get out or stay in purely on how much you liked your job. I’d like you to have a choice and to feel torn between two really good choices—the military or the civilian world.
5. I wish you had a partner who would step up in every way.
When her Navy husband was assigned to Afghanistan for seven months, Amanda Banks not only agreed to do the usual mountain of stuff at home, but was sworn in as his replacement in the Indiana State Senate. The former public policy expert said, “I’m a full-time mom, I’m a military wife, and I think those perspectives will bring a fresh view to the Statehouse.” I wish on you that kind of person who becomes as big in spirit as life requires.
6. I wish that Congress would suddenly be chock full of veterans and spouses.
Serving in the military used to be a common trait of our lawmakers. That number gets smaller every year. So I wish that every veteran and spouse out there would suddenly discover a huge number of backers begging them to represent us on Capitol Hill.
7. I wish you could be the awesome reflected in your children’s eyes.
When your children are young, you are perfect in their eyes. You are the only mom or dad they know. As they get older, they judge you and you mark them in ways you don’t dream of when they are little. I wish that you might live up to their great expectations. They are counting on you.
8. I wish no one would call the person who loves you a “dependa.”
I wish that whatever that thing is that makes people hate on military spouses would just dissolve into nothingness. I wish you would never have to reassure your partner of their value but that they would feel it from an inner wellspring every day.
9. I wish your civilian husband or wife would earn more money than you.
I wish there were so many opportunities for your partners career abilities that they could earn at the top of their potential too.
10. I wish you would learn something new this year.
I read that as you get older, life speeds up because you are having fewer new experiences. The way to make the time last is to learn something new. So I hop that 2015 is the year you learn something new—a talent you can use at work, a new parenting skill, an idea that opens your mind. And I hope you will share it with all of us at SpouseBuzz in the year to come.
