Go to Through the Looking Glass-Here's My Take on It
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- Go to I Believe--a reprint, but I think most peopel can relate and/or be uplifted
Terpgirl30 thanks for dropping in as it were
Easy to lose sight of me, as I don't post much anymore and only ocasionally read. Real life needs to predominate.
Hope your struggles are abating or going well, and that you are "pressing onward" as we used to say.
posted by
majroj
on April 18, 2007 at 8:13 AM
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Maj
HI!!!!!
I haven't checked back here for a bit. I totally lost sight of you. Great comment. It seems like such an easy concept to me, and obivously to you, but then you see people abusing everything for the tiniest gain, and you know it must not be that simple to all.
It's so good to hear from you.
posted by
terpgirl30
on April 17, 2007 at 11:19 PM
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As I told the guy on NPR........
This I believe:
The Triad
Of course, the ''Golden Rule'' is the universal ideal when it comes to relations between people and peoples. Man as a species, however, needs things broken out and unfolded like a peddler's pack in order to understand exactly how something as compact and unassailable as doing to others as you would have them do to you affects your life's conduct.
Perhaps the best restatement of this truth is the triad that applies to any person responsible for other people away from home, especially away from civilized life and ultimately on the edge of the unsafe. It is, as a retired twenty year Air Force ''buck sergeant'' taught me one evening, as follows:
Everyone eats.
Everyone has a place to sleep.
Everyone has a ride out.
There are corollaries; no one is left alone, no one hoards, no one who is wounded or sick is without aid. However, these are provided by the people living and acting together and only facilitated by the ones responsible for them. Sometimes the basic three are superseded by your mission, or by extraordinary collective circumstances, but the basic three remain.
There are extrapolations. If I'm hungry, we're all hungry, because we share what we have. If some of us have to pull watch (or change the baby) at night, the duty circulates so no one is left out. If you come up lame, we will carry you out. If I die, you will make every effort to bring me out; failing that, you will render what honors you can in the circumstances, and carry the story of my end to my loved ones. But the basic three still stands.
This has broken down at times, to the shame of those responsible. I remember the story of a Marine trainee nearly thirty years ago in the Mojave Desert. He was dropped off in a separate position without a radio, as mission dictated; his sergeant did not take sufficient measures to ensure his retrieval at the end of the training, and the troop managed to make it most of the way back toward the main base before succumbing to the heat.
His remains were searched for and found, brought back and accorded proper honors. The base stood down; the sergeant left the Corps under a cloud, but so did his superior, and his superior as well. One need only think briefly to find parallels in responses to this year's hurricanes, but also to find differences rooted in hubris and ignorance of the basics of civilization.
I no longer have a hand in planning and providing for my folks either in the field or training for it, but I resort to the basic triad whenever and wherever the rock-bottom question of honorable and proper action rises.
I resort to it because I believe. |
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posted by
majroj
on March 15, 2007 at 9:32 PM
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hi terpgirl
it's all about tolerence, understanding, forgiving, care ........ and most of all I believe in LOVE.
posted by
richinstore
on March 4, 2007 at 7:18 PM
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Thank you, Afzal
I can't tell you how many times I read and reready that. Then it dawned on me that if it was having that kind of effect on me, I'm sure other people could use it as well.
I hope all is well with you. I have to catch up on your blog. I haven't been here much recently, and I'm just now trying to touch base with those I've liked to read so much.
Kim
posted by
terpgirl30
on March 4, 2007 at 6:12 PM
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Wonderful post . It has touched my heart .
posted by
afzal50
on March 3, 2007 at 11:17 PM
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