On Our Merry Way.....

Humans.  Aren’t we interesting?  We arbitrarily assign significance to points in Earth’s cycle around a second rate star.  Still, it is our star and our planet.

With this in mind I want to offer two wishes for Christmas and New Year Holiday.

Have a Merry Christmas with your loved ones and friends.  The earth will eventually spin on without us and them.  Enjoy each other while we can.

Have a good New Year.  You have control over that.  You can make any year happy or miserable, not to say there will not be moments of each.  Let me share two poems that remind me of who I am and where I’m going.

A Bag of Tools  by R. L. Sharpe

ISN'T IT strange

That princes and kings,

And clowns that caper

In sawdust rings,

And common people

Like you and me

Are builders for eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools,

A shapeless mass,

A book of rules;

And each must make—

Ere life is flown—

A stumbling block

Or a steppingstone

Lastly, only because it is longer with a title often misunderstood.

Desiderata  By Max Ehrmann

GO PLACIDLY amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Thanks Max for putting it so eloquent!

Many people in the tactical community have a fascination with Japan’s feudal warrior class, the samurai.  They were, among many things, what we might call intellectuals.  I’m sure they would have studied the above works.  Give it some thought yourself.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!