Photo #1
• The Texas Proverb adorns my Library Wall.
• It reminds me that I adore and revere books/thought/study
but…
• The cowardly way is to leave the information on the page.
• It urges to consume as one a nutritious meal and then to
use that fuel and put into practice what one has read.
• To test it, amend it, toss faulty work, poor scholarship,
bad info and to actively make trivia on the page my own fact.
• Then…do it all over again.
Photo #2
• The Vale Alliance is a loose confederation of Brotherhood
among The Black Box Brethren.
• It centers around how many a Roman closed a letter with
the phrase “Vale!”
• Which translate to “Be Strong! Be Worthy!”
• When I first encountered it I was struck by how pale most
of our sign-offs are now—Bye, Take it easy, Later.
• Here we have an exhortation to Be Strong of Mind, Strong
of Body, Strong of Character.
• But…
• With the Vale sentiment, Strength is not enough.
• You must be Worthy.
• One can be strong and exult in power without being worthy
of praise, respect or emulation.
• Vale’s command is to be Strong AND to be Worthy.
• One without the other was without nobility.
• Again, the sign-off was no childish or innocuous “Bye
bye.”
• It was, “OK, I’ve said what I need to say in this message,
now I remind you, I remind me—Let us Be strong, Let Us Be Worthy.”
Photo #3
• The Comanche Nation flag.
• The Lords of the Southern Plains.
• Formerly the largest indigenous empire in the continental
United States, pre-smallpox decimation and active extermination.
• These people pre-Reservation, pre-missionary were a
distinct culture.
• A nomadic warrior ethos that prized strength, skill,
cunning.
• A rarity in that amongst indigenous peoples [and many
“civilized” cultures today] they were realists, pragmatists, called by some
scholars “The Skeptics of the Plains.”
• They possessed an ethos of clear-eyed evaluation of
people, nature, and the world with no overlay of mythology to warp perception.
• I have been so struck by the early Comanche that 8 years
ago I began learning this difficult language—there are only 18 fluent speakers
left in the world—I admire this culture to such a degree I want any piece of
that mindset I can snag.
• Central to Comanche Warrior though is a Comanche
Benediction I utter every single day, several times per day. As a matter of
fact, if one has dined with me, you have heard me toast with it.
“Yukani’bar’u!
Yu’nu’mi’t’u!
Yu’yu’kar’u!”
[Live Unconcernedly!
Live Well!
Be Good!]
• More specifically—To live unconcernedly is to take care of
all that needs to be taken care of: Warrior Training, household maintenance,
attention to loved ones, etc.
• If one attends to these things one can live unconcernedly.
• To live well, we follow that Warrior’s Path of
smart-indulgence, not over-indulgence. Staying the path of the Unconcerned
Warrior ensures that we walk that razor’s edge of discipline and appreciation
in the everlasting now.
• Be Good—is also translated to Be Disciplined, Be Right, or
back to the Romans, it is Vale. Be Worthy.
Photo #4
• The business banner and its tribal band is, to my mind, a
coat of arms that combines all these thoughts into a Warrior’s Path.
I could say more here. I could bore more here.
Instead, I end with—I am grateful for these Ways on My Walls
that remind me daily. They are the fingers pointing to the horizons I walk
toward.
May we all have signposts we don’t simply utter!
May we all have Paths That We Are Ennobled to Walk!
May They All Be Imbued with Deep Feeling so That Each Step
Feels Shoulder-to-Shoulder with Active Posterity!
VALE!
“Yukani’bar’u!
Yu’nu’mi’t’u!
Yu’yu’kar’u!”
Wanna Join Me in the Warrior Way?
Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life
The Black Box Store
https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/
The Indigenous Ability Blog
https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/
The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast
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