“Take good care of our Pork Chop.” Of course, they said that. That hill, covered in the lives and blood of their friends and buddies, was as much a part of them as their hearts and souls. Hallowed ground. Sacred ground.
Thank you, Marshall. I know you feel this truth in your bones. It is my hope that by fleshing it out we can find a way to recreate all of the good with none of the bad. Probably not possible, but worth the attempt at any rate.
After reading a couple of Sam’s essays, one might think he is saying you need to have a combat experience to be fully alive. After the pleasure of reading almost all of Sam’s essays, I believe he is always talking about the importance of finding a path (and there are probably about ten of ‘em) to discovering the deep truth of what Joseph Campbell says here:
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
Keep on banging that drum, Sam! So many of us have fallen asleep in our modern cocooned life. We are all on the hero’s journey.
Thank you for the extremely charitable interpretation, Baird. A reader recently DM'd me with some excellent feedback. Essentially, he was concerned my essays appeared amoral. I was stuck because I could see it myself. I go out of my way not to preach, or try to become a guru or influencer saying "this is the way." And I can see how that may lead readers to misread my intent. I am making a pivot soon with What then? that will address this directly, as I'm ready for a new phase. Thank you again for the perceptive, generous take on what I have been writing.
Sometimes the HOW we say things can confuse some people about the WHAT we are trying to say (someone criticized my writing/speaking earlier in my career for that, and they were right!). I hope I am hearing what you are saying accurately, Sam. I’ll be interested to see the new bottles you pour your good wine into next! ✌️
That line stayed with me: “Take good care of our Pork Chop.”
There’s something almost unbearable in that kind of attachment, not to the hill itself, but to what was lived and lost on it. I think what you’re pointing to with the “Combat Sabbath” is real in a very specific sense. When everything unnecessary falls away, something in perception sharpens, and people meet each other differently. Not abstractly, not ideologically, but at the level of immediate presence. Where I find myself hesitating is in what comes after that. Not the observation, but the implication, because it’s one thing to say that extreme conditions reveal something essential. It’s another to suggest that without them we lose access to it. I’m not sure the clarity found there belongs to war itself, or to what war removes.
That sentence on the wall feels less like love for the hill, and more like a trace of human continuity in a place designed to erase it. Which makes it more significant, not less, but also more tragic.
The question it leaves me with isn’t whether war can produce meaning. It clearly can. It’s whether we can reach that level of presence without needing to be stripped down by force.
I tried to make as clear as possible in the first section that it is 100% possible to achieve it without combat. Perhaps not at that intensity, but I also do not think is either good or sustainable over the long term. It is the small aspects of life, if seen and treated with the right frame of mind—offspring, a garden, writing, etcetera—that can get us there. It is an art in itself trying to achieve this sort of Sabbath.
On this year’s 81st Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jews remember their own Pork Chop Hill. Six million were exterminated and the survivors went back to the land of their ancestors. They made gardens in the desert and became defenders of life.
Let’s go Barry. I’m in the process of reading the Old Testament cover to cover, and am midway through Leviticus. The fight is an ancient one, and along with much pain is an incredible amount of beauty.
Nature provided us with life, so the least we can do to repay for this immense gift is to pay attention to the multitudes of beings and gifts she gave us along with it! Good reminder to stay aware and not fall into mindless routines and digital distraction.
In reading this essay, Sam, I kept coming back to "centeredness." The fondness for Pork Chop Hill and the caring sentiment likely occurred because the place gave these humans purpose. I think that exists in certain realms of today where cooperative purpose exists...not over zoom, but in person. The military is a great example.
The centeredness of a collective task that requires cooperation and the willingness to contribute as well as follow, even though it's not ideal, in the end brings satisfaction. I think too many choose to check-out when a pursuit becomes difficult or the leadership isn't ideal. This is a false set of expectations that limits us to only partaking in what we can control, which leads to isolation and subsequent "abstractions."
I love this riff. Agreed on all fronts, Jesse. A sort of national service, even if secular and not strictly for the "nation", could achieve something similar. I do not think I could ever support an enforced program, but if we could shift the cultural winds to bring something like this to reality, it could probably solve an entire generations sense of meaninglessness.
When you've been in that position, it strips the bullshit 'importance' Not that I recommend the butcher's bill to get people to face that but there's a grit that comes from this that most of our population has lots in the lap of luxury.
Mere comfort is pointless. Accomplishment is a necessity for a complete life. It can be as innocuous as winning at an athletic contest, or as deadly as fighting a battle.
100%. My sense is this is something the modern Stoic crowd is missing. You're talking about an old school philosophy whose roots we can trace to Aristotle. I'm here for it.
“Take good care of our Pork Chop.” Of course, they said that. That hill, covered in the lives and blood of their friends and buddies, was as much a part of them as their hearts and souls. Hallowed ground. Sacred ground.
Thanks, Sam.
Thank you, Marshall. I know you feel this truth in your bones. It is my hope that by fleshing it out we can find a way to recreate all of the good with none of the bad. Probably not possible, but worth the attempt at any rate.
After reading a couple of Sam’s essays, one might think he is saying you need to have a combat experience to be fully alive. After the pleasure of reading almost all of Sam’s essays, I believe he is always talking about the importance of finding a path (and there are probably about ten of ‘em) to discovering the deep truth of what Joseph Campbell says here:
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
Keep on banging that drum, Sam! So many of us have fallen asleep in our modern cocooned life. We are all on the hero’s journey.
Thank you for the extremely charitable interpretation, Baird. A reader recently DM'd me with some excellent feedback. Essentially, he was concerned my essays appeared amoral. I was stuck because I could see it myself. I go out of my way not to preach, or try to become a guru or influencer saying "this is the way." And I can see how that may lead readers to misread my intent. I am making a pivot soon with What then? that will address this directly, as I'm ready for a new phase. Thank you again for the perceptive, generous take on what I have been writing.
Sometimes the HOW we say things can confuse some people about the WHAT we are trying to say (someone criticized my writing/speaking earlier in my career for that, and they were right!). I hope I am hearing what you are saying accurately, Sam. I’ll be interested to see the new bottles you pour your good wine into next! ✌️
That line stayed with me: “Take good care of our Pork Chop.”
There’s something almost unbearable in that kind of attachment, not to the hill itself, but to what was lived and lost on it. I think what you’re pointing to with the “Combat Sabbath” is real in a very specific sense. When everything unnecessary falls away, something in perception sharpens, and people meet each other differently. Not abstractly, not ideologically, but at the level of immediate presence. Where I find myself hesitating is in what comes after that. Not the observation, but the implication, because it’s one thing to say that extreme conditions reveal something essential. It’s another to suggest that without them we lose access to it. I’m not sure the clarity found there belongs to war itself, or to what war removes.
That sentence on the wall feels less like love for the hill, and more like a trace of human continuity in a place designed to erase it. Which makes it more significant, not less, but also more tragic.
The question it leaves me with isn’t whether war can produce meaning. It clearly can. It’s whether we can reach that level of presence without needing to be stripped down by force.
That, to me, is the harder Sabbath.
I tried to make as clear as possible in the first section that it is 100% possible to achieve it without combat. Perhaps not at that intensity, but I also do not think is either good or sustainable over the long term. It is the small aspects of life, if seen and treated with the right frame of mind—offspring, a garden, writing, etcetera—that can get us there. It is an art in itself trying to achieve this sort of Sabbath.
I read twice your article. Quite interesting really. Thank you for that:)
I should have been more clear. This came up in Baird's comment as well.
But is understandable after a second reading.
Well said, Sara. I wrote my comment before seeing yours, and I think we’re on the same wavelength.
:)) is always nice to share opinions.
On this year’s 81st Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jews remember their own Pork Chop Hill. Six million were exterminated and the survivors went back to the land of their ancestors. They made gardens in the desert and became defenders of life.
Let’s go Barry. I’m in the process of reading the Old Testament cover to cover, and am midway through Leviticus. The fight is an ancient one, and along with much pain is an incredible amount of beauty.
“They made gardens in the desert”
True, both literally and metaphorically. Thanks Barry.
Nature provided us with life, so the least we can do to repay for this immense gift is to pay attention to the multitudes of beings and gifts she gave us along with it! Good reminder to stay aware and not fall into mindless routines and digital distraction.
Well said. It is a worthwhile intentional practice. To the comment you made in your Note, we can use it now more than ever.
In reading this essay, Sam, I kept coming back to "centeredness." The fondness for Pork Chop Hill and the caring sentiment likely occurred because the place gave these humans purpose. I think that exists in certain realms of today where cooperative purpose exists...not over zoom, but in person. The military is a great example.
The centeredness of a collective task that requires cooperation and the willingness to contribute as well as follow, even though it's not ideal, in the end brings satisfaction. I think too many choose to check-out when a pursuit becomes difficult or the leadership isn't ideal. This is a false set of expectations that limits us to only partaking in what we can control, which leads to isolation and subsequent "abstractions."
I love this riff. Agreed on all fronts, Jesse. A sort of national service, even if secular and not strictly for the "nation", could achieve something similar. I do not think I could ever support an enforced program, but if we could shift the cultural winds to bring something like this to reality, it could probably solve an entire generations sense of meaninglessness.
Yes! That 15-25 year old segment needs meaning/distraction, perhaps more so than any other age range.
When you've been in that position, it strips the bullshit 'importance' Not that I recommend the butcher's bill to get people to face that but there's a grit that comes from this that most of our population has lots in the lap of luxury.
A necessary caveat and perspective. The challenge is articulating this in a way that gets through without appearing to be warmonger.
Mere comfort is pointless. Accomplishment is a necessity for a complete life. It can be as innocuous as winning at an athletic contest, or as deadly as fighting a battle.
100%. My sense is this is something the modern Stoic crowd is missing. You're talking about an old school philosophy whose roots we can trace to Aristotle. I'm here for it.
“Take care of our Pork Chop” will provide me with hours of thought.
I did the same to me.