The day was September 11, 2010. I had gotten invited to come to downtime Chicago to go out to a restaurant with some friends to celebrate one of my friend’s birthdays. One of my best friends, was going to an LSU alumni bar with his girlfriend, now his wife, to watch the LSU football game and asked if I wanted to meet up before we went out to dinner.
Here is a concise list of some of the principles I believe will help my kids as they go through life.
One day my father and I were on our way to a soccer game I was about to play. I was a young boy at the time and my dad turned to me and said “With your shield or on it.” I looked at him with a puzzled face and asked what that meant.
He told me the ancient Greeks used to say that before a battle. Upon a little more research I found that Greek mothers used to say this to their sons before battle. The mothers actually were proud and happy when the soldiers came back from war and their sons were not amongst them. They were actually disappointed when they laid eyes on their children who had survived. It was viewed as a sign that their sons didn’t fight bravely. In essence, the mothers would rather have their sons die than believe they hadn’t given it their all.