Ronald Reagan and the Marine Corps
Read the story first: Ronald Reagan and the Marine Corps.
Nugget of Wisdom
You cannot change how a man is built. You can learn what he runs on.
SOP
Somebody has told every one of you, at some point, “You need to change. You don’t have to be that any longer.” Sit facing each other. If comfortable, hold hands. Share with your partner what the “that” was. The Marine. The farm kid. The preacher’s daughter. The oldest of seven who raised the rest. Then share a time you said it to someone else. Focus on what it felt like to hear it. After reflecting, come together as a group and compare.
Questions
- What is the “that” people have asked you to stop being? Did you take an oath to it somewhere, even if nobody heard you take it?
- Look at the specs on the Lord’s order form. Which ones are you? Black coffee? Six pairs of hands? The one that runs without a procedure manual?
- “That’s not a leak. That’s a tear.” When did your partner last see you leak, and what was it for?
- What in your partner have you been trying to change instead of nurture? Say it, and then let them say what they run on.
- What is the one line you would put on the first page of your own operator’s manual?
Closing Reflection
I stood on the yellow footprints and became something I had always wanted to be. How I walk through life now is the way I choose to walk. Nobody in this room needs to be rewired. If you care for someone, you learn how to nurture and feed the system they already have. That is what I hope this whole book does for each of you. We all have a unique operating system. Mine is simple. It comes with an operator’s manual.
Mission for the Week
Write the manual. One page each, by hand, this week. Not what you want. What you run on. What fuel. What wakes you up. What makes you leak. What you took an oath to. Keep it to one page; a Marine’s is short.
Then trade pages and read each other’s out loud, slowly, with no comment until the end. Pick one item from your partner’s page and feed it this week, on purpose, every day, without announcing it.
If you have a son or a grandson about to go in, hand him the story about the sixth day of overtime and ask him which spec he thinks he is. Then tell him which one you see.
Keep the manual. Read it again in a year. You will find the fuel has not changed, only how well the two of you have learned to pour it. That is what I hope this whole book has taught you to do for one another.
Drafted for review — not yet approved by Ron.