Comments

" 'In war, neither could exist without the other.'"

WAR - they are in friggin war. They aren't running a McDonald's or a Pizza Hut. Or have you changed the theme of your blog to 'the new world of war?"

They are also a self selected bunch of people. This is far from a random sample.

By the way, what is so wrong about have a feeling of camaraderie with your own countrymen to the degree where you don't spend a large portion of your energy rationalizing why it is perfectly acceptable to send their jobs to another country in the name of globalization. It may not rise to the degree of love, but it would actually be kind.

Posted by zorro at May 25, 2010 12:20 PM

I think I would rather stick needles in my eyes than be stranded on an elevator alone with Zorro. Even his family dog must be depressed. Most here will get the fact that the insight is based on there being a close knit team that depends on each other, not the fact they are in a war. To most of us social enough to be willing to work with other humans on teams, we have seen the same dynamic in different degrees.

Posted by Bruce at May 25, 2010 2:09 PM

There's also some interesting material on the book listing on Amazon.com.

Posted by AT at May 25, 2010 2:35 PM

Bruce ... you may have a point.

Posted by tom peters at May 25, 2010 3:40 PM

Thanks for this Tom – I endorse it. In January 1977 as a young hospital administrator I found myself with just 8 other members of staff and 120 patients in my hospital that had been flooded at 8 pm when the river running through the town burst its banks due to an unusually high spring tide coinciding with a North Easterly gale. We were completely isolated and inaccessible to the rescue services due to the high water level in the roads leading to the hospital. We had to get through the night with no strategic document in the filing cabinet for such occurrences. What made it the most amazing time of my entire career was that the 8 of us became a team in those 12 hours. Though it sounds a bit dramatic it was really just a wonderful series of relationships that kept us going as we wondered how the hell we were going to get through the night without losing some of our very frail elderly patients as the freezing cold water rose steadily in the ground floor ward. The good news is no patient died. Anyone can write plans and policies -relationships are far more useful and far more important.

Posted by Trevor Gay at May 25, 2010 5:18 PM

Thanks, Tom.

1 Corinthians 13

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The greatest teams of any kind are built on love.

By the way, I disagree with Bruce and find Zorro bright and thoughtful. Perhaps, he is at times a bit relentless. But, we all have a role to play and his is often poignant and appreciated. If I were stuck on an elevator with Zorro, I would probably learn a lot about myself, both positive and negative. But I would also hope that he would be kind. :-)

I love the photo, Tom. Thanks!

Posted by Judith Ellis at May 25, 2010 8:13 PM

Shared purpose. Shared passion. Shared pain. Accountability. Honesty. Top to bottom. Then, and only then, relationships and love happen.

Posted by Tom Asacker at May 26, 2010 7:42 AM

Tom A - I really like that. It's a shared process, eh? Thank you.

Posted by Judith Ellis at May 29, 2010 1:14 PM

Trevor Gay,

Bangor, Maine?

Posted by David Anderson at May 31, 2010 2:01 PM

Sorry David - no - from England, UK!

Posted by Trevor Gay at May 31, 2010 3:41 PM

I saw Mr Junger on John Stewart and he said that many of the
people he worked with for the book had a hard time adjusting to civilian life. The stakes just were not high enough. The relationships people develop in War, these people found, are nothing like the relationships one develops
when you are actually (not metaphorically) responsible for each other's survival.

War is war and ordinary life is nothing like war. We all need to learn to be happy with ordinary life and not fantasize that our ordinary lives are somehow as heroic as war. Also, BTW, most of us will not get married to women who look like Angelina Jolie.
We need to learn that it is possible to read a book called War by Junger and just be fascinated by it and amazed that there are people like the people in the book and, that it is very likely that we are nothing like these people - if we are, our asses should be in frigging Afghanistan! They need people!
And we must learn to accept and embrace this fact.

Posted by zorro at June 1, 2010 10:14 PM