Something to which I need to aspire

THE WARRIOR CREED
By Robert L. Humphrey (1923 -1997)

Wherever I go,
everyone is a little bit safer because I am there.

Wherever I am,
anyone in need has a friend.

Whenever I return home,
everyone is happy I am there.

"It's a better life!"

I have been eminently aware that I have been a really unpleasant person to be around the last few weeks. Robert L. Humphrey was a rifle platoon commander on Iwo Jima and spent over a decade trying to figure out why his life had turned out the way it had (the Great Depression, then combat in the Pacific). He eventually took a degree from Harvard Law School and taught Economics at MIT. I found this, in a short excursion from research, on the home page of the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (probably one of the more harmless excursions from research I've taken).

I think I try pretty hard to live up to the first part of this creed. I'd like to think, as prickly as I tend to be, that I do okay with the second. I'm not so sure about the third. The better life part is still a work in progress.

I don't doubt the basic truth of this creed - but I have no illusions about how well I do at it. I have much work left.