The Way of the Warrior: Holding Space for The Fourfold Way

Chris Corrigan corcom at interchange.ubc.ca
Tue Sep 25 07:27:43 PDT 2001


Hi Barry:

Nice to see you on here.  Thanks for your reply.  I have only a couple of small
points in my own defense.

Barry Owen wrote:

> I believe your context is Tremendously skewed. I served in the US Army 12
> years. I know MORE people who served with me who I consider to be WARRIORS
> than SOLDIERS (as you define the words). Most of the people I know who fit
> the description of your friend are veterans who saw brutal combat in the
> "soldier" role.

I have no problem admitting that my context is skewed.  I only know one guy as I
said.  Although he never saw combat, he was in some combat like situations in
terms of stress and moral positioning.  I only know what he tells me, and that
is that he feels singularly unable to adopt to civilian life after what he has
been through, and in his words, after what he has been trained to do.   In terms
of the folks who have to go and come back and either die or risk spending their
lives in cognitive dissonance, it is the ones who will face combat that I am
talking about.  I appreciate your clarification, and of course I don;t mean to
impugn every soul in the US Armed Forces...it was just a starting point for my
thinking about the Warrior.  There are Teachers, Healers and Visionaries in
those organizations too.  Bless them all.


> I could not continue to lurk while such broad "profiling"
> happens. These folks are NOT the typical armed forces personnel. Believe it
> or not, the military is not entirely made up of "war mongers" and "cogs in
> the wheels of the machine" . . . There are many many WARRIORS whose first
> choice would be to stand firm without killing and who WILL kill when and if
> killing is necessary (when their country is attacked and the safety and
> freedom of their people is at risk).
>

Exactly right there Barry.  I realize, as I said in my original mpost that there
probably is a time for killing and a time for dying.  I don;t know what those
are, but I hope those that have to make that call do.  That's what they are
trained to do.

Your thinking and two cents in graciously received in these quarters.  Thanks
for responding to me with those clarifications.  As I said, I don't mean to
"profile" or stereotype, but rather to explore archetypes a little.  I guess it
is a fine line when we are talking about only four ways to be in a world of 5
billion spirits.

Chris

--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

http://www.chriscorrigan.com
corcom at interchange.ubc.ca

RR 1 E-3
1172 Miller Road
Bowen Island, BC
Canada, V0N 1G0

phone (604) 947-9236
fax (604) 947-9238

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