Brace for Impact

The Guardian of the Gate looked down and watched them coming on, A close-knit rank of new-born souls treading the star-lit dawn, Shoulder to shoulder and step by step—sturdy as shades might be— And the Guardian of the Gate, perplexed, wondered whom he should see.

“What souls are these?” he asked at last, “who hold their heads erect: Who bend no knee, whose eyes look up,—are they without respect?” The Captain lifted a steady hand, saluted and thus replied: “We are the souls of the Men who Dared,—who lived with courage—and died!

“We asked not why; we cared not why; we gave of our best in the fight; The bitter or sweet; the cruel or kind—each as he saw the Light: We did not wince when the whip-lash stung, but strove by the rules we knew, If you would have us on bended knee, none of us will go through.”

The Guardian of the Gate, wide-eyed, nodded his haloed head. “This is the talk of the living,” he said, “and not the speech of the dead.” The Captain smiled. “We are dead, indeed—but habit is strong in the soul And the God we seek cares not to have men crawling to reach the Goal.“

“We lived and loved; we wrought and laughed; we did what was given to do. Not for rewards, and not through fright, but each to his standard true: That the Master within grants peace and joy to humans made good through fear We won’t believe, and we can’t believe—else why are we summoned here?”

The Guardian opened the Gateway wide. “Enter!” was his command, “The depth and breadth of the Master’s love at last ye may understand!”

The Light of the Endless Peace shone down as he opened the judgment roll And found their names. They had earned their rest—Captains of heart and soul!

—-

The Soul Captains

Everard Jack Appleton  1872-1931

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It’s important to dedicate time out of your day to training and studying. The mind, brain, and body make the man. Don’t allow yourself to be anything less than great. Always strive for excellence. Be the man your tribe needs, the man your children look up to, and the man others aspire to be.

Truthfully, in this age those with intellect have no courage and those with some modicum of physical courage have no intellect. If things are to alter during the next fifty years then we must re-embrace Byron's ideal: the cultured thug

Jonathan Bowden

“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”

"Give us your submission and we will give you all the comfort you need." I can think of no measure of comfort worth that price.

A pirates life for me.

“Beowulf calls Sigmund’s and Sinfjötli’s deeds foul as well as fair, the Völsunga saga portrays the two as outlaws living in the woods by robbery. The old Indo-European notion that warriors bear a burden of sin was thus still alive in northern Europe through most of the Middle Ages. So was the custom of sending young men as wolves into the wilds for training in survival and conquest of new land. Sigi, Sigmund’s grandfather, was such a wolf-warrior guided by Woden. Sigmund and Sinfjötli are thus true-to-type wolf warriors: of ambiguous morals, boundless strength, and fierceness in battle. They were also men to whom Woden’s presence brought the power and magic that was in the beginning.”

“You should always be the first and outrival all others: your jealous soul should love no one, except your friend - this precept made the soul of a Greek tremble: in following it, he followed his path to greatness.”