Thankfulness

At the end of the last chapter of To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth Jeff Cooper offers the reader a list of the blessings he’s received (good health, loving wife, fine children, etc). He ends with “…such blessings cannot be deserved, but they are deeply and humbly appreciated.”

At this time of year we celebrate a uniquely American holiday, Thanksgiving. We celebrate not the founding of our nation, our founders, or our great men and women. We take this time to give thanks for the blessings we have received. Despite the efforts of some to make this into a time of mourning for what was done to the American Indians (and I suspect their descendents are grateful that they’re no longer living like their ancestors), it is a time for counting blessings.

I’m grateful first of all that I serve a God who loves me, who loves all of His creatures. I’m grateful that God doesn’t require that I defend Him but that He comes to my aid to protect me, even from myself.

I’m grateful that I live in the most free, most prosperous nation in the world. A nation that offers me the chance, and only the chance, to succeed. A nation where my abilities are the only possible deterrent to my own success.

I’m grateful for a wife who, inexplicably, loves me. A woman I’d die for and who I live for. A woman who understands me better than I understand myself and who strives to make me happy (and succeeds resoundingly).

I’m thankful that I had parents who taught me right from wrong, who didn’t explain away my misdeeds but neither did they dwell on them after the lesson was learned.

I’m grateful that I married into a wonderful family that treats me as one of their own. After my wife and I married it was just so natural to call my new mother-in-law “Mom”, a name I didn’t think I’d ever utter again after my mother died in 1990.

I’m grateful for good health, a comfortable home, and a good job. I’m glad that I can take my job seriously enough to be good at it but not be so obsessed with it that I live to work rather than work to live.

No, I do not deserve these blessings, but I appreciate them.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, USMC

I’ve been remiss in mentioning that November 10, 2007 was the 232nd birthday of the United States Marine Corps. The Marines were formed by act of the second Continental Congress which specified that two battalions of Marines be raised to function as landing forces for the fleet. It’s been my honor and privilege to have known a number of Marines (including my father). They’ve all had a few things in common, they were all plain-spoken (if a bit vulgar at times), fiercely proud, loyal to a fault, and a little bit crazy.

For over two centuries, whenever America has felt the need to kick butt the Marines have been the steel toe on the boot. The late Jeff Cooper (himself a Marine) said that if you wanted to see the world you joined the Navy, if you wanted to fly you joined the Air Force, if you wanted to learn a trade you joined the Army, but if you wanted to fight you joined the Marines. Ronald Reagan said that some people go thru life wondering if they made a difference, the Marines never had that problem. Admiral Nimitz, commander of the invasion of Iwo Jima, said of the Marines in that action that uncommon valor was a common virtue. Rumor has it that Chesty Puller (most decorated Marine in history), on seeing a new model flamethrower wondered where the bayonet was attached. Perhaps the Marine Corps motto says all that needs to be said: “No better friend, no worse enemy”.

While I have the greatest respect and admiration for all of our fighting forces, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for the USMC. Now if you’ll excuse me, because of my lateness in mentioning the Marine’s birthday I have to give Gunny 232 push-ups.