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- Oct 15, 2017
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My DS suggested that I read The Warrior Ethos, by Steven Pressfield some time last school year, because it was required reading at USNA, and he liked it.
I saw it on the USMC Commandant's Reading List, so I thought to myself that with those two recommendations, it would be time well spent.
Not much time, I might add. It is less than 100 pages with fairly big print (which I appreciate at my age). It took me all of 80 minutes to read. I got a couple of pages into it, and said to myself: "this guy has to be a Marine". I looked at the bio on him in the back - and sure enough - he is. Well, the publisher refers to him as a "former Marine", but I can let that slide.
On to my book report, lest I digress.
It was an interesting read. I learned nothing by reading it, because I already knew exactly what he was saying, before I picked it up. Now, if I was a teenager, it would have been enlightening. At least, I think it would be. It is hard for me to relate to my younger self, since it was so long ago. I do agree that the Warrior Archetype does a lot to inform the archetypes that follow. As I matured into The Sage, and The King (both may be a little debatable), perhaps I passed on to my DS what I knew of The Warrior Ethos as he was growing up. Whatever that was, pales in comparison to what he knows now, having the experiences for himself. I know that he knows it (at least in part), because he mentions his friends and what he would do for them and what they would do for him. He is now living that archetype that will inform him and shape him so well to achieve whatever it is he wants to achieve, for the rest of his life. For now, the Warrior Archetype has seized him. Something inside him makes him want to jump out of an aircraft and blow stuff up. Something drives him to seek out that crusty Gunnery Sergeant (maybe that Red Hat at Pickel Meadows) as a mentor. A leader who will expect more, and make him do more, than he ever thought that he was capable of doing. He will seek out comrades in arms. People who have his back, just as he has theirs. Lifelong friends who are just as crazy as he is.
Yeah, I get it. I don’t want to do it again, but everyone should do it once.
If you served you'll like this book, but I don't think that it was written for us. I think it was written for people who know nothing about it. Either way, it is informative and a good read.
I saw it on the USMC Commandant's Reading List, so I thought to myself that with those two recommendations, it would be time well spent.
Not much time, I might add. It is less than 100 pages with fairly big print (which I appreciate at my age). It took me all of 80 minutes to read. I got a couple of pages into it, and said to myself: "this guy has to be a Marine". I looked at the bio on him in the back - and sure enough - he is. Well, the publisher refers to him as a "former Marine", but I can let that slide.
On to my book report, lest I digress.
It was an interesting read. I learned nothing by reading it, because I already knew exactly what he was saying, before I picked it up. Now, if I was a teenager, it would have been enlightening. At least, I think it would be. It is hard for me to relate to my younger self, since it was so long ago. I do agree that the Warrior Archetype does a lot to inform the archetypes that follow. As I matured into The Sage, and The King (both may be a little debatable), perhaps I passed on to my DS what I knew of The Warrior Ethos as he was growing up. Whatever that was, pales in comparison to what he knows now, having the experiences for himself. I know that he knows it (at least in part), because he mentions his friends and what he would do for them and what they would do for him. He is now living that archetype that will inform him and shape him so well to achieve whatever it is he wants to achieve, for the rest of his life. For now, the Warrior Archetype has seized him. Something inside him makes him want to jump out of an aircraft and blow stuff up. Something drives him to seek out that crusty Gunnery Sergeant (maybe that Red Hat at Pickel Meadows) as a mentor. A leader who will expect more, and make him do more, than he ever thought that he was capable of doing. He will seek out comrades in arms. People who have his back, just as he has theirs. Lifelong friends who are just as crazy as he is.
Yeah, I get it. I don’t want to do it again, but everyone should do it once.
If you served you'll like this book, but I don't think that it was written for us. I think it was written for people who know nothing about it. Either way, it is informative and a good read.