Brian Johnson reflects on meeting Father Eric Albertson, Senior Chaplain for Special Operations, who gave him a St. Michael medallion at MacDill AFB. He calls for gratitude toward service members and their families, invoking an Albert Einstein quote about repaying the labors of others.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last couple of ones, we explored some wisdom from a couple of bullfrogs. We started with 18 military aphorisms that guided Admiral McRaven's career and then briefly discussed Vice Admiral Zymanski's wisdom on resilience. Recall, Vice Admiral Zymanski defined resilience as being tough in the moment, every moment. Cue a choir of angels singing. Amen on that one. Now, I plan to focus today's plus one on some more wisdom from Admiral McRaven's great book, the Wisdom of the Bullfrog. But as I typed that line about a choir of angels singing, I thought of the very first person I met when I made a trip out to SOCOM to give my talk on resiliency to General Fenton and his top commanding officers as part of their first Soft Truth event on Force Health. Quick story the event I attended was held at the Joint Special Operations University campus building on MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa Bay. Now, the moment I walked in the door, I was blessed to meet Father Eric Albertson. Father Eric is the Senior Chaplain for Special Operations. He gave me a sacred gift that I was wearing as I typed this, and I'm wearing it right now. That gift, it's a medallion he gives to his warriors. The medallion has St. Michael, the patron saint of warriors, on the front and the soft tip of the spear icon on the back. Now, Father Eric told me that many of his warriors wear the medallion on a dog tag. And with that in mind, I immediately got a dog tag chain. And I've been wearing the medallion ever since as a reminder of that moment and as a reminder of the sacred obligation we all have to give back in equal measure to all the warriors and their families who protect our freedoms and all the other anonymous human beings who make our lives possible. Here's today's +1. If you feel so inspired, please take a moment to think about the brave men and women and their families who sacrificed their lives to protect our freedoms. If you need to let go of any ambivalence you may have about the current geopolitical environment, I would encourage you to consider looking past the politics to see the human beings and their families willing to sacrifice their lives to protect our freedoms. As one of my dear friends who serves at the highest level of the US Military told me when he missed his daughter's college graduation because he was actively deployed protecting our and our allies freedoms, one of the mantras in his family is Freedom isn't free again if you feel so inspired, may we say a silent prayer of thanks together to not only the families that serve us, but every anonymous human being who makes our lives possible. I like to do so with Albert Einstein's wisdom in mind. Einstein told us, every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. Here's to exerting ourselves in order to give in the same measure as we have received and are still receiving, with a heart full of gratitude and a fierce commitment to playing our roles humbly yet heroically. Well, today.
