Ron Moore throws down another entry in his producer blog. HIs best stuff in this entry isn't about BSG, but about his life decisions surrounding the military:
It's interesting that I've almost never mentioned the fact that I was a Marine Midshipman -- I almost invariably talk about being on track to join the Navy. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's a bit of wishing my way onto the path I thought I would've been happier on, or maybe it has to do with lingering embarassment over my washing out of the whole program, or who knows what.
The closest I've come to making peace with this part of my past came about three years after I'd washed out. I went back to Cornell to see friends at my fraternity (K.A.) and hang out a bit, and I found a old box with some of my junk still in it. Most of it was literally trash, but when I found my old shoulder boards, I felt like I'd done something wrong by leaving them there to tarnish in a box. Men had fought and died with that Eagle, Globe, and Anchor on their collars and it bothered me that I'd tossed mine aside so cavalierly. So I put them in an envelope with a note and left them at the door to the NROTC unit up at Barton Hall. I remember I wrote something like, these meant something to me once, and please return them to the unit and hope they find their way onto the shoulders of someone who deserved them instead of lying in a box of trash. I felt better somehow after doing it, felt like I'd maybe shut the door on that chapter of my life, but in truth, I don't think I've ever really made peace with the experience and I probably never will. There will always be a sense of something left undone, something incomplete, and certain questions about myself left unanswered.
That is some great blog writing. It really let's you inside Ron's head a little bit. It makes sense why so much of the show works the way it does. Through Ron's reverence for the military, we are treated to a spectacular display of realism in his writing.
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