Quantcast
Channel: Engaging the Disquiet » Men’s Roles
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 15

Do you remember war movies?

$
0
0

patton.jpggreatescape.jpgbridgeriverqaui.jpgdirtydozen.jpgguns.jpgrunsilent.jpg

It’s a rainy Saturday afternoon and in the east, we are hunkering down for a major storm. I love rainy Saturday afternoons. It reminds me of when I was a kid, I loved flopping on the couch and watching war movies. There was nothing better.

Somehow I feel like that should be a secret. It’s like that somehow detracts from my often-stated personal values and is not what I should be enjoying for entertainment.

Now, I look back on that great memory and I am a bit embarrassed. I have to admit I still love the idea of a war movie marathon. It doesn’t exactly fit with my commitments to ease suffering and interests in personal development and freedom, but it’s the truth.

I will defend it though – these days I am more interested in movies that explore the cost of war. I’m not as caught up in the action anymore as much as the fascination on why we wage war. I feel more like an alien anthropologist or one of Captain Kirk’s landing team observing a race of being doing something so curious as waging war.

So my tastes these days run more to movies like Flags of our Fathers , The Patriot or Saving Private Ryan.

And yet I do honor what I learned from the movies as I grew up. I learned about bravery, sacrifice, service, comradery, patriotism, team work and the value of training and obedience. I can name lots of examples where they informed how I operated in real life situations while serving my country. Just like the trips with my dad to the hardware store, garage and barbershop placed me in the front row to learning how men are men with each other (read my article, “Man Space“), I picked up a lot of wisdom that serves me now.

Even my understanding and how I work with the Disquiet owes a nod to these movies and what I learned from them.

So in that vein, I offer a tribute:  Here is a Saturday afternoon war movie marathon about the Disquiet. It’s a triple header, so grab a beer, pop some corn and stretch out on the couch. And snoozing is allowed – some of my best learning was by osmosis through closed eyes!

We’ll start the triple feature right here with an earlier article I wrote that takes battlefield wisdom from an Israeli paratrooper and applied it in working with the Disquiet. It’s called “How to use a battlefield tactic to engage your Disquiet. And it’s a classic! :-)

The next two articles will carry this theme.

Enjoy!

The post Do you remember war movies? appeared first on Engaging the Disquiet.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 15

Trending Articles