Great Things...

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.
- Sir Winston Churchill

Hi folks. What a great quote. I am amazed that such incredible concepts can be contained in the framework of single words. They are deceptively simple. I guess I became aware of this when reading the Bible recently. It struck me that if someone had asked me what "propitiation" was that I couldn't tell them. The bad news was that I was having trouble explaining the simple words like "grace" and "good news" too! I had to get honest and admit that I was familiar with the words and could use them in a perfectly good sentence, but I really didn't have a very clear understanding of the concepts that lay behind the words. Then I had to go and find out what they meant!

The same applies to the words that Mr. Churchill laid out in his statement. What is freedom? Justice? Honor? Duty? etc. These words bear enormous weight, and they are words that are featured prominently in discussions of faith, patriotism, and character. It seems prudent that we examine them and try to figure out exactly what they mean to us when we use them. It is also vitally important that we understand them if we are going to transfer these concepts and character traits to our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. And I think that few would argue that it is crucial for future generations to grasp these concepts if there is to be any hope for our world to be any better for our descendents.

I was able to do some work on the post last night, but it ended up being mostly research. I'm really not quite ready to move forward with my planned topic tonight, but will be working on it some more tonight.

There are some really fascinating quotes out there about honor, which is the character trait that I will be beginning with. I remember that there was a really great quote about honor in the movie Rob Roy. His sons had asked him what honor was, and he responded, "Honor is something no one can give you…and no one can take away from you. It is a man's gift to himself."

What does honor mean to you? I've never served in the military so I'd be really interested to know what the different branches teach about honor during basic training (if anything.) I would expect that it is also a subject of the training of the various elite forces too. Is it something that is taught explicitly, a concept that is simply inherent in the people that pursue these career paths (not likely), or is it something that is expected and demanded as part of the culture? I really would like to hear from you about what you think about it. I hope to have some of my initial thoughts written out tomorrow.

So, I hope that you'll be looking forward to that and I'll certainly be looking forward to reading your contributions too.