Civilian Friends vs. Marine Friends Comparisons
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Get upset if you're too busy to talk to them for a week.
MARINE FRIENDS: Are glad to see you after years, and will happily carry on
the same conversation you were having the last time you met.
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CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
MARINE FRIENDS: Have cried with you.
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CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Keep your stuff so long they forget it's yours.
MARINE FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
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CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
MARINE FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.
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CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
MARINE FRIENDS: Will kick the crowd's ass that left you behind.
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CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Are for a while.
MARINE FRIENDS: Are for life.
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CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Have shared a few experiences.
MARINE FRIENDS: Have shared a lifetime of experiences no citizen could ever
dream of...
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CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when they think you've had
enough.
MARINE FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say, 'You
better drink the rest of that before you spill it!' Then carry you home
safely and put you to bed...
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CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will talk crap to the person who talks crap about you.
MARINE FRIENDS: Will knock the hell out of them for using your name in
vain.
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CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will ignore this.
MARINE FRIENDS: Will forward this.
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A Marine - whether active duty, retired, or reserve- is someone who, at one
point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The Government of
the United States of America' for an amount of 'up to and including my
life'. . .
OK that was a little Wednesday morning Motivation sent out by one of the staff's senior enlisted. I like to think that some of nice folks who I have met through this blog are more like Marine friends than Civilian friends. So thank you for your fellowship.
Jordan
17 comments:
Oh, I am so going to rip this off and put it up on Ox Herding (with your permission, dear Marine!).
Just great - thank you!
Hi Barry, Sounds fun!
Thank you, Dharmabro. Great post.
Yours in Dharma,
Uku
Nice one. Maybe Barry can add Dharma Friends in there too. Thanks for your words.
Uku, Nellalou,
Thank you!
Marine friends are friends in action. Civilian friends are friends in concept?
What about e-friends? We can't even borrow your stuff to return or not!
What a wonderful post! I am going to fwd it even though I am not a marine..:)I do feel that with some of my college friends, I share the same bond - I can see them after years, pick up the conversation and it never feels like there was a gap.
I don't know if you've ever read Gwynne Dyer, but his book on War is worth a read by everyone who's not been a soldier (and I have not, in case you haven't guessed).
Especially lefties like myself. Lefties like myself all need to read Dyer's book.
Dyer conveys the professionalism of the military, and the reasons why folks in the marines are so committed to each other.
And yeah, it's essential to living well to emulate much of that behavior in us all.
I wonder what kind of friend you call a friend who says to you:
Jordan, this post is a heap of shit!
All the best,
Mike
Lauren: I have a feeling people are borrowing my stuff all the time…
Taru: Glad you enjoyed the post!
Mumon: I have not read Gwynne Dyer’s work, but I am not a lefty so I guess I am off the hook. But I appreciate the idea you posited.
Mike: I would call that a Cross friend.
All: thanks for your comments!
Jordan,
This post may reek of miasma, but this saprophagous loves it.
You are not a lefty, what are you? ;-)
Yamakoa,
I think you just lost some merit for using $64 words when 25ç cords would do...
Not left or right!
I suppose I will get more political in 2 years, 8 months and about two weeks
.
"Not left or right!"
Jordan - It's good to have friends on both sides of the razor.. It isn't easy but you make it seem so.
Hi Jeff,
That is an interesting observation, than you for your perspective.
I heard a good story that I think is related that I will try and recount tomorrow if I can fit a break in the work tempo.
kalyaana-mitra = a friend in the good.
What do friends in the good do, if not encourage each other in the direction of the Buddha's wisdom? And what has the Buddha's wisdom got to do with the parochial, dualistic views and reactive ways of groups of ordinary people?
Your attitude in posting this post is no different from Gudo Nishijima, who taught me to see the world in terms of "We, true Buddhists," and those others, who do not know what [my] 'true Buddhism' is -- the non-Buddhists.
If now I sound Cross to you, it may be because I am like one of those people who have sort of stopped smoking, but still haven't really given up the desire for a smoke.
The desire to feel oneself on the right side of an Us vs Them dichotomy is very seductive.
But I think that our struggle is just to resist that. Actually, I don't think it -- I know it. Otherwise I wouldn't bother posting this kind of stuff on your blog.
All the best,
Mike
P.S. To clarify what I meant by the smoking metaphor, it is often the born-again non-smokers who are the most mouthy in their vehement opposition to other people smoking. And the reason for their vehemence may be that a struggle is still going on within them. So other smokers are like a mirror for their own desire.
Mike,
My friend in the good. Thank you for your encouragement.
Keep on keeping on,
Jordan
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