It's a Make Your Bed and Lay In it Thing

Dear America,

"If you want to change the world, 

START OFF BY MAKING YOUR BED."

Admiral McRaven. U.S. Navy Retired 

University of Texas Commencement Speech, 

which went viral...then re-imagined into a little book

summer composition numero siete

#950

signing in.

From the back of the book...the fine admiral explains in simple terms, "if you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day.  It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.   By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.  Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter.  If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right."

love love love this guy

In all of about a hundred pages, McRaven succinctly lists ten bullet points, from the basic training of making your bed, to the earth shattering acceptance of how life isn't fair, to standing up to bullies, to never, ever quit!   And More!

In chapter seven -- when expanding upon the depth and breadth of continuously digging deep in order to excavate the level of courage needed to get through some days, he says: "Our goal (when swimming at night in shark infested waters off Coronado, during Seal Training...)which we believed to be honorable and noble, gave us courage, and courage is a remarkable quality.  Nothing and nobody can stand in your way.  Without it, others will define your path forward.  Without it, you are at the mercy of life's temptations.  Without courage, men will be ruled by tyrants and despots.  Without courage, no great society can flourish.  Without courage, the bullies of the world rise up.  With it, you can accomplish any goal.  With it, you can defy and defeat evil."

John McCain modeled profound courage during his military career, and while imprisoned by the enemy.  There are not words, really, to express that level of appreciation and honor upon a man of such courage.  There are not words.

There are also not words to express the level of frustration, watching the fine senator of great influence, descend into the abyss of the D.C. Establishment, Inc.  There are not words.

There are not words to express the level of compassion, watching the fine senator battle a vicious form of brain cancer.  There are not words.

God bless you,  John, God bless.  He's a big boy, a war hero, and a fuzzy conservative; and he has made his bed and laying in it for all of eternity now.

Nate Jackson, @The Patriot Post, offers up two McCain quotes (above link), and they just so happen to fall in line with McRaven's words of wisdom...(color me surprised, right....that military upbringing, man....priceless)  These Mc's seem to be attached at the hip and hoorah.

So Jackson quotes this first: 

Asked about bouncing right back in 2008 after his defeat by Barack Obama, McCain said: “You know, the best cure, I found, for something like that is: Get goin’. Don’t look back. It’s so mentally harmful for you to look back — ‘I shoulda, coulda, woulda.’ … The best thing to do is press on.”

and then adds this:

And about his career, he said: “I do not know anyone alive — I’ve never heard of anyone — who is as lucky as I am. I crashed airplanes. I was a terrible disciplinary problem at the Naval Academy. I managed to avoid being killed in a fire on the [USS] Forrestal. I was shot down. I had the honor of winning the nomination for the presidency of the United States. The honor of serving in the United States Senate. And now following in the footsteps of one Barry Goldwater as chairman of the Armed Services Committee. I am exuberant and so fortunate. I’m telling you, I wake up every morning and go to bed every night saying, ‘Thank you, God.’”

pretty safe to say ---  McCain made his four corners high and tight every morning, too.

It is the little things.

But dare I say, all the little things seem to rest upon One Big Great Thing, whether in attribute, characteristic, or in direct relationship; and that THING is SPIRIT.  

Each and everyone of us are abundantly endowed  by our Creator --  our source of all good and all need --  every single day, from the moment we get up out of bed and promptly turn around to make it, and make it good.

This Spirit is alive and lives inside us, feeding us with the courage, the compassion, the love, the service, that is required of us in the every day -- and IT is CONSTANT, if we so let It.

I believe that it is this Spirit working  through us -- like within a Seal Team dude, like within a Prisoner of War -- that allows us to meet the demands with the equal or better yet, greater power, to fight the demons of everyday life, no matter what life brings.

The thing is -- it is not our humanity that meets these kinds of demands of life -- it is our personal, intentional, connection to the Great Spirit in the sky, in the sea, on the mountaintops, and in our deepest valleys that makes it so.  Without IT, we are nothing.  Our humanity has so many faults in our stars, so many faults.

In another favorite book of mine, The Art of War, Napoleon I (circa 1804) is quoted in the commentary section, under the section titled, "Variation of Tactics" -- who says:

"Death is nothing. 

But to live defeated 

and without glory, 

that is to die every day."

amen

amen

This world needs more advice from the McRaven's of the world, indeed.

And as we lose a man who is now, upon his death, ironically being praised to the highest heights by the left leaning media and a slew of left leaning co-patriots in office, let us be reflective of the whole man and bless him anyway. (Perhaps this simply falls under Chapter Eight: Rise to the Occasion...)

well, 

now that the blog is somewhat complete,

my bed is made,

time to go to the real job and the rest of this day -- whatever it may bring.

the end.

So make sure you make your bed today,

and

Make it a Good Day, G