I've generally never been one to believe in reincarnation, at least not the way pop culture has presented it. No, I don't believe anyone who claims to have been some famous ruler in a former life. Sorry, you can't all have been Cleopatra in ancient Egypt or a noble knight in the middle ages. There are likely more people alive today who believe they were than there actually ever were when these people walked the earth. I mean, if reincarnation is to be believed as a common thing, there had to have been someone alive today who was a yak farmer in upper Mongolia or an outhouse builder in the old west. But no one ever thinks that, do they?
General George S. Patton actually believed in reincarnation, and often claimed to have been a solider in ancient times, throughout the history of man.
And the reason I'm even bringing this all up is, as I was saying, I don't necessarily believe in reincarnation but there have been numerous times when I would come across something for the first time in my life, this current lifetime that is, and realistically, there's no way I could have known how to do something but, I did it. Like a seasoned pro, even. First time I recall the exact moment something like that happened was when I first shot an M-16 in high school. A little background.
We grew up, not exactly WITH guns and firearms around the house, but they were adjacent. Dad kept a revolver in his sock drawer when we were still living in the converted garage when we were kids. I know because as a nosey kid, you find stuff. There it was, probably only a .32 or maybe a .38. The bullets were kept in a tied off sock next to it. I looked and, I can't lie, nosey little Louie took it out to hold it, point it around and wonder what it might be like to shoot it but that's as far as it went. Dad didn't really handle firearms himself much either. As far as I recall, he never shot it, just kept it at home for protection. And he managed to buy a Tec-9 in the early 80s. Don't ask where he got it, it was entirely under the table, if you know what I mean. That one, he did shoot at least once. New Year's Eve, probably '82 or '83.
But for me, personally, I never shot a gun until high school. Even before shooting a gun, I was handling one regularly though. In High School JROTC, I was on the Rifle Team and eventually became Rifle Team Commander. It was for parade and presentations but we were handling the M-1 Garand. 9 1/2 pounds of walnut wood and blued steel. Spinning, twirling and throwing it at other cadets on the team. I got to know the Garand intimately because of it. Being able to field strip it down to it's primary components and reassemble in just a few seconds. Careful you don't catch your thumb as you release the magazine catch to shut the breach, it's gonna mash your thumb pretty good if you're not quick enough.
But it wasn't until my Senior year that our class got to take a field trip to March Field for the day with the Security Police at their gun range on the base and we had an entire day to learn all about the M-16, field stripping, shooting and cleaning. It was during this class that, as our instructor went over the basic disassembly of the rifle, it all felt so very familiar. Charging handle to lock the bolt, push out the take down pins, flip open to remove the bolt carrier assembly and you've got full access to the barrel for simple cleaning. How or why did I know all that? There wasn't any YouTube videos to look at ahead of time. I hadn't bought any books outlining the procedure. But I know all the inner workings, the direct impingement operation from the gas tube, that's the hammer, springs, magazine catch and release, buffer tube... It was eerie how little attention I was paying to the instructor because I was already familiar with the weapon. And it's not as though the procedures from the Garand to the M-16 are remotely similar. In fact, anybody familiar with the two would admit that the only thing the two have in common are that they're both rifles.
And then going out on the range to fire. Again, this was my first time ever shooting any kind of gun that wasn't attached to a video game. And I was the first on the firing line to pull the trigger. That much, I'm certain of. Why or even how was I so familiar with something without ever having experienced it before?
I'm sure a few of you readers are probably thinking you've had a similar experience in life, not necessarily with firearms but maybe your first time behind the wheel driving, you can't explain why you felt so comfortable, at ease doing it? Pick up a hobby like fishing or needlework and you just take off like a duck to water. How? Why? What made it so easy for you to learn? I've always told younger students or even family when they experience a setback when they're trying something new, Don't worry if you aren't perfect the first time doing it. If you were, you didn't really learn anything, did you? But there had to have been a point when you DID learn something, wasn't there? When did that happen if not in your current lifetime? Where did that memory come from?
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