obelisks and ironies

I went to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis today to watch the freshmen plebes try to mount a greased obelisk to fetch the symbolic hat on top. Imagine a few hundred lean, mean Navy boys in t-shirts and shorts, trying to climb over each other while getting coated with the lard that's covering the obelisk. Then they get quite sweaty and wet from the upperclassmen spraying them with water. Two hours of this went on. There were a few women in the mix, but they got tired soon during the fray. The monument was about 4 people high, so you can imagine all the contortions they had to do to mount the thing.

After about an hour of watching, the homoerotic element faded, and it was interesting to see how they adapted to try and get to the top as exhaustion set in. It was ironic that they didn't really start cooperating until the second hour. This coming from a student body being trained for leadership. I guess the irony is that since they're all leaders, there are no followers, and thus the struggle. Eventually, the hat on top was taken by a tall black guy, which was cool since there hasn't been many at the USNA until recent years. I was rootin' for a few of the tough glamazons who were doing a good job climbing over the men, but they ran out of gas by the second hour. Some day a woman will mount the obelisk to fetch the little white hat on top. You go girl.