PDA and Other Crimes

A secret fraternity is a good analogy for the military. Both a fraternity and the military have a cost to join, and in both cases you're expected to undertake the commands of your superiors without question. Once you're in, though, you're family and treated as such.

Which is why this separation from The Doctor isn't as bad as it could be. I'm away from my home town, but I'm in the middle of a community ready to support me should anything start to go seriously wrong. It comforts me, and I'm sure it comforts The Doctor.

However, as like any huge organization, there are rules that the organization wishes you to observe and obey. The base has its own protocol office as the official "rules" keeper. Don't know which is the salad fork? Call protocol. Is it a jacket and tie evening, or can I go "Arizona Casual," that is, shorts and flip-flops? Call protocol. Do I need to pull over during taps and shut off my headlights? Call protocol.

It's a lot like speaking a language - easy to just immerse yourself and become fluent, but if one tries to explain how to conjugate an irregular verb, the wheel can fall off your wheelbarrow very quickly.

The chief protocol officer was addressing a crowd of which I was a part. He opened the floor to questions.

"What's the rule on PDA?" a spouse inquired.

The protocol officer got the look of someone trying to conjugate "to be" in an obscure martian dialect.

"The old guard would have you believe that PDA while in uniform is NEVER acceptable, but social mores are changing in this regard. What was the circumstance you found yourself in?"

I forgave the protocol officer for ending his sentence with a preposition. It's a grammatical error the old guard would NEVER find acceptable.

"I had my arm checked for a TB screening. It came up positive. I had to go to the clinic for further tests. My husband was waiting with me while he was on his lunch break. When they called my name to go into the lab for further testing, he didn't kiss or hug me because he was in uniform..."

I mentally put palm to face. It wouldn't have even occurred to me NOT to give The Doctor this kind of reassurance had I been in this situation. Would I have had been tased by the protocol police?

The answer was no, as the protocol officer explained, "under those circumstances, no one would have faulted your husband for reassuring you as you went to get your tests. As I said, mores are changing on this issue. Reasonable amounts under proper circumstances are allowed..."

Egads. I didn't think I was in the land of reasonable. Good to know.