The Heart and the Fist

Image from here.

Alright folks, this book was A-MA-ZING and so right up my alley currently. Eric Greitens presents different parts of his journey through life. He discusses becoming a boxer while at Duke, participating in humanitarian projects across the world, attending Oxford, and then at the same time as when he had offers to teach and contract, he discusses his choice to become an officer/Navy SEAL. I loved many things about this book but one of the major reasons that it struck a cord with me was Greitens personal journey from idealist humanitarian to realist soldier----and somehow I feel that this mimics my own journey from lofty social worker to public health advocate to military spouse and veteran sympathizer. Greitens argument is that there is a need for both idealist/realist or warrior/humanitarian to exist in the world however and I couldn't agree with him more.

The first chapter left me in tears (mainly as I am currently so intertwined with so many veterans who have served overseas), but the rest of the book kept me nodding my head and earmarking pages. I learned more about the military and about current efforts overseas. I heard my heart speaking and I heart Greiten just get so many of the things that do weigh on my heart and mind. I also was reminded of the strength that each of us does carry inside and was asked to take a hard look at my own commitment and journey in the larger world. And I would honestly recommend this book to everyone and really wish we had read it this time for book club.

So here are some of my favorite passages so I can unfold the pages and pass the book on for hub and housemate #1 to read next. :)

"Across the globe, even in the world's "worst places," people found ways to turn pain into wisdom and suffering into strength. They made their own actions, their own lives, into a memorial that honored the people they had lost......On the frontlines---in humanitarian crises, in wars overseas, and around some kitchen tables here at home---I'd seen that peace is more than the absence of war, and that a good life entails more than the absence of suffering. A good peace, a solid peace, a peace in which communities can flourish, can only be built when we ask ourselves and each other to be more than just good, and better than just strong. And a good life, a meaningful life, a life in which we can enjoy the world and live with purpose, can only be built if we do more than live for ourselves."----pg 11.

"God, in Earl's view, had invested every person with strength, and it was our duty to develop that strength.....duty to use their strength in the service of God.....Earl rarely used the word, but his whole system of teaching and his whole way of living was built around the concept of honor. You honored God by using your time wisely, and you honored your fellow man by treating him with respect....."-----pg 38-39

"Bruce was both compassionate and demanding. Compassion was primary. He thought it criminal that people could grow up oblivious and unresponsive to the suffering of others. These are your neighbors, he would say. But he was hardheaded enough to know that having a loving, wide-open heart was only a start."---pg 75

"Here in Bolivia most of the kids played in bare feet, and they had as much fun as we ever had. Alone, human beings can feel hunger. Alone, we can feel cold. Alone, we can feel pain. To feel poor, however, is something we do in comparison to others."--pg 92

"If we want to change something, we must begin with understanding. But if we want to love something, we must begin with acceptance. ....Their love was built on patience, and their faith helped them to know that they couldn't do everything, but they did have to do what they could.....I admired their intentions but...there are some things---like civil society, like character, like a child's belief in the future---that cannot be achieved overnight. Humanitarians, warriors, scholars, and diplomats all do best when we recognize the difference between what we can fight for and what we must accept, between change that can be catalyzed and change that must be built over time, from within."--pg 106

"I learned how difficult it can be to stay focused when you're worried about someone that you love, and for that learning I am grateful......Of course, just like life doesn't stop at home, the mission overseas doesn't stop either, and those same men had to wake up the next day and get back to dangerous work. Emerson once wrote that concentration is the secret of strength. You can't chase two rabbits at once. And for men to perform overseas while their lives kept running at home, absolute concentration on the task at hand is essential."---pg 158 & speaking of the difficulty of "issues" happening at home during deployments

"I love American idealism. I love the hopeful spirit of Americans endeavoring to shape the world for the better. A lot of times, though, many Americans.....who have never spent a day working with people who suffer, can be blinded by the bright shining light of their own hopes. You cruise through a town where you don't speak the language and offer someone a conversation about freedom or fifty bucks, most people will take the cash, thank you very much. I'd learned.....the very simple lesson that people were smart enough to know what they needed, and if we wanted to have credibility with them, we had to be able to help them directly." ---pg 224

"The world, I believe, is not constructed so that is presents us with perfect choices. I'd joined the military in part, because I saw that to protect the innocent, we have to be willing to fight. It is also true, however, that for all the warrior's discipline, when we pick up the sword, innocents will suffer. ....The Greeks often talked about phronesis, practical wisdom...Phronesis is the ability to figure out what to do, while at the same time knowing what is worth doing. 

Phronesis allows soldiers to fight well and leaders to rule well, and, as Aristotle argued, it can only be obtained through experience. My own experiences....had not made me a militarist or a pacifist, or any kind of "ist." I knew that the world would continue to require us to make hard decisions about when we draw the sword and I'd seen that the use of force was both necessary and imperfect. There is no school of thought that can save us from the simple fact that the hard decisions are best made by good people, and that the best people can only be shaped by hard experience." ---pg 283 & 284

""Take care of your people" is one of the principal lessons of military leadership, and my people were not just SEALS, or SWCC, or the men in my targeting cell. Serving overseas, everyone in uniform is part of the same team. Everyone is away from their family. Everyone is exposed to danger. Everyone endures the same long, hot days, hears the same bad jokes, reads the same old magazines. Everyone loses friends. If we take care of our people on deployment, why should that change when we come home?"---pg 287 & 288

"Stockdale taught that as a leader, you must embrace reality and be brutally honest about the harsh facts of your situation. At the same time, you must maintain hope." --pg 289

"Our wounded and disable veterans had lost a lot. Some had lost their eyesight. Some their hearing. Some had lost limbs. All of that they could recover from. If they lost their sense of purpose, however, that would be deadly. I also knew that no one was going to be able to give them hope; they were goign to have to create hope through action." --pg 291

"Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and author of Man's Search for Meaning, wrote that human beings create meaning in three ways: through their work, through their relationships, and by how they choose to meet unavoidable suffering. Every life brings hardship and trial, and every life also offers deep possibilities for meaningful work and love. 

I've learned that courage and compassion are two sides of the same coin, and that every warrior, every humanitarian, every citizen is built to live with both. In fact, to win a war, to create peace, to save a life, or just to live a good life requires of us--of every one of us---that we be both good and strong."--pg 297

LOVED IT. Please read.