ping-pong and peace - TTTC

"On occasions the war was like a Ping-Pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance."

(p. 31)

so in a way, the war is whatever you made it out to be. if you decided to make it a positive experience, sometimes you could. other times, there was just too much devastation. too much bad stuff. like when something awful happens in our lives, we can recall that moment at the drop of a hat (recall 9/11: I'm sure you remember where you were and probably how you felt...). this happened in the war too:

"The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over. But the war wasn't all that way."

(p. 31)

but the important thing for this is that not everything was that way. there were some good times. it wasn't all negative. no matter how bleak things seemed at any given moment, there were always going to be that time when there was a small feeling of peace. even in a war.