So here it is the full letter from Chief Dan to his best friend's unborn son:::
Before my father died, he said the worst thing about growing old was
that other men stop seeing you as dangerous...I've always remember that
how being dangerous was sacred, a badge of honor. You live your life by a
code. An ethos, every man does. It's your shoreline It's what guides
you home and trust me you're always trying to get home. Your father was a
reader, Churchill of course but also Faulkner and books about Tecumseh,
he loved artists who painted people with bodies that looked like boxes,
I'd give him hell about that he just say you gotta look harder, Look
harder your father would say, I always knew he wasn't just talking about
those boxy abstract paintings. There's threats everywhere in a
world that's draped in
Our platoon was headed downrange, we
had Weimy our sniper he grew up in the middle of the Mojave desert, most
excitement he had as a kid was bowling frozen turkeys down the isle at
the grocery store.
Ray our comms guy, our radio man. He grew up in east
LA gangland. He had a silver star for pulling a wounded teammate out of
a freight.
Sonny he was made of grannet, this guy didn't even do push ups because he was afraid his chest was gonna get too big.
Ajay joined the teams late in his 30's he had been
a muay thai fighter all his life, before that he grew up dirt poor in
Trinidad.
Mikey had 20 years in the teams, as
humble as he was. You never even know him, he kept a picture of his wife
in his helmet and a lock of her hair in his pocket, quiet as the breeze
and finally senior chief miller, couldn't really tell you much about
him other than I'd rather take a knife to a gun fight than have to be
interrogated by him.
That last night at home you think
about how you coulda been a better dad, a better husband, that bedtime
story you shoulda read or that anniversary you forgot. You don't expect
your family to understand what your doing, You just hope they accept it.
When you get home you hope you can pickup right where you left off.
War is a country of will, theres no room for sympathy. If your not willing to give up everything...You've already lost.
Your
father was a good man, growing up without him is going be hard its
going to hurt. You'll feel alone, out to sea with no shore in
sight you'll wonder why me, why him. Remember you have warriors blood in
your veins, the code that made your father who he was is the same code
that'll make you a man he would admire, respect. Put your pain in a box.
Lock it down, like those people in the paintings your father liked we
are men made up of boxes, chambers of loss, triumph, of hurt and hope
and love. No one is stronger or more dangerous than a man who can
harness his emotions, his past. Use it as fuel as ammunition as ink to
write the most important letter of YOUR life. Before your father died he
asked me to give you this poem by Tecumseh, I told him I'd fold it into
a paper aeroplane and in a way...I guess that's what I'm doing, sailing
it from him to you.
So live your life that the fear of death can never
enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion;respect others in
their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect
your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long
and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death
song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting
or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show
respect to all people and grovel to none.
When
you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of
living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in
yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to
fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those
whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time
comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over
again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero
going home.
