2-77

 

77.

Shortly after the games I informed the Palace that I’d be leaving the Army. Elf and I worked onthe public announcement; it was hard to get the wording just right, to explain it to the public,maybe because I was having trouble explaining it to myself. In hindsight I see that it was a harddecision to explain because it wasn’t a decision at all. It was just time.

But time for what, exactly, besides leaving the Army? From now on I’d be something I’dnever been: a full-time¹ royal.

How would I even do that?

And was that what I wanted to be?

In a lifetime of existential crises, this was a bugger. Who are you when you can no longer bethe thing you’ve always been, the thing you’ve trained to be?

Then one day I thought I glimpsed the answer.

It was a crisp Tuesday, near the Tower of London. I was standing² in the middle of the streetand suddenly here he came, yomping down the road—young Ben, the soldier with whom I’dflown back from Afghanistan in 2008, the soldier I’d visited and cheered as he climbed a wall withhis new prosthetic leg. Six years after that flight, as promised, he was running a marathon. Not theLondon marathon, which would’ve been miraculous³ on its own. He was running his ownmarathon, along a route he’d designed himself, in the outline of a poppy laid over the city ofLondon.

A staggering thirty-one miles, he’d done the full circuit to raise money and awareness—andheart rates.

I’m in shock, he said on finding me there.

You’re in shock? I said. That makes two of us.

Seeing him out there, still being a soldier, despite no longer being a soldier—that was theanswer to the riddle⁴ with which I’d been struggling so long.

Question: How do you stop being a soldier, when a soldier is all you’ve ever been or wanted tobe?

Answer: You don’t.

Even when you stop being a soldier, you don’t have to stop being a soldier. Ever.

 

1 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

2 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

3 miraculous   

adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的

参考例句：

• The wounded man made a miraculous recovery.伤员奇迹般地痊愈了。
• They won a miraculous victory over much stronger enemy.他们战胜了远比自己强大的敌人，赢得了非凡的胜利。

4 riddle   

n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜

参考例句：

• The riddle couldn't be solved by the child.这个谜语孩子猜不出来。
• Her disappearance is a complete riddle.她的失踪完全是一个谜。