Midnight Musings

FOUNDATIONAL DOCTRINE

The stereotypical warrior is portrayed as a slayer, a killer of men, destroyer of things. And while that certainly has its place in wartime, in modern day that level of toughness is rare and more commonly found in drug lords and violent offenders. They are the Dark Warriors, barely controllable, driven only  by their lust, emotions, or the power of their station they have built up.

The TRUE warrior mindset isn’t about going out and killing people, it’s about bracing oneself and Doing What Needs Doing, no matter how unpleasant it may be or how much one may not want to do it. It is a form of mental/psychological toughness and resiliency very lacking among people in the current era. Like the Nike slogan, the Shia Laboeuf and Chancellor Palpatine memes: Just Do It. Complain about it if you must, if that helps you get through it, but Just Do It. Hold yourself to task until said task’s completion, instead of nopeing out and going out for drinks or treats. Doing it not just for oneself, but for a cause, a higher calling, that one believes in. To defend one’s boundaries, and hold dearly onto one’s values, stand by them, protect and defend them against those that  would trample or mock them.

The demons one wrestles with are not red-skinned with horns sprouting from their foreheads, they are not nefarious evil things that do terrible things in opposition to what is Good. Rather, they are one’s procrastination, apathy, indifference. One’s entitlement, ego and pride. Taking the easy way is not always the right way. Nothing that is easy lasts, and nothing that lasts, is easy.

Once  one has mastered the art of the doing of things, one can start exploring the why. Why must one do XYZ task? Plunging a toilet is a dirty task. But one does it so one doesn’t make a shitty mess everywhere. Why go to a job one despises? To secure one’s survival, and after that, happiness and prosperity. When one has mastered how to do battle, one can begin to ask why the other side does battle. Only once one knows oneself can one hope to understand another. Only by seeking a higher understanding, by looking past the immediate necessity of a given task, or series of tasks, by understanding the reasoning moving us to do what we do, can a person know peace, and do what they do with a clean conscience.

Do the best you can, with what you have, where you are. Now. Not later.