"Living the Martial Way"

                The other day I began emailing a list of people who have inspired me, requesting their permission to use content from their work on my blog.  One such inspiration was Forrest E. Morgan, author of the book “Living the Martial Way:  A Manual for the Way a Modern Warrior Should Think”.  Well, today he emailed me back, which is huge.  His book inspired me in so many ways, it has helped me further clear my mental chatter, change my outlook on life, change the way that I train, and my overall posture and physique in general.  Here was his response:

Dear Bradley,

Thank you for the kind words regarding Living the Martial Way.  I'm happy to hear you found it so helpful and inspiring.  You have my permission to quote the book and use information from it in your blog, provided, of course, that you cite it appropriately. I would be happy to take a look at what you've written so far.  I have to tell you in advance though, that you are correct in guessing I have a very busy schedule.  So it might take me a while to get back to you and my comments might be brief.

Good luck with your blog.

Best regards,

Forrest E. Morgan, Ph.D.

Senior Political Scientist
RAND Corporation
4570 Fifth Avenue, Suite 600
Pittsburgh, PA  15213

Now I’m not sure if any of you have tried contacting one of your heroes before, odds are if you did they didn’t respond or your mom wrote out a letter and gave it to you claiming they wrote you back.  This man could have disregarded my email entirely and looked the other way, or had some staff member write me back with a general response.  However, he personally took the time out of his day to write back to me and this means the world to me.  Actions like this speak very loudly for a person’s character this man is a true warrior.

All too often in today’s society we forget how much doing even the simplest thing for another person can affect them.  Like everything else in our world the opposite is also true, it’s simple physics, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Be nice to others, greet them with respect and a smile, and more often than not, you will receive the same in return.  Greet someone with attitude and you will get that same attitude back with few exceptions. 

It’s the people that can return attitude with love, kindness and respect for the other person’s space that are striving to make this world a better place.  Much love to everyone out there who gives expecting nothing in return, you are doing your part to reverse the damage that mankind has done.

You must be the change
you wish to see in the world.  Gandhi