Take the Risk for Your Relationship

Some of the people who are the warmest, most vulnerable people I know are folks in the military. I mean, they're combat veterans, they're warriors. And yet I've hugged more people in uniform than I ever have in suits. I've cried with more people in uniform. Never cried with anybody in a suit. It's because combat is such an intimate and horrible experience that the bonds of love— I mean love— are really intense. I learned this lesson. It happened a couple of years ago. A good friend of mine in uniform, still active duty combat veteran. We just were catching up and, you know, you know, nothing in particular, just talking for an hour. And I remember I saw him and I was saying goodbye and I looked him in the eye and said, I love you, to say goodbye. And when he hugged me, he hugged me like I was his son. You know, it was He's amazing. And I— our friendship now is more intimate, more open because I took the risk to tell him a feeling.