Bullets for the Battle

The Drive to Attain Something Higher

I find inspiration from reading about the men who formed our nation. Consider the following quoted from Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser.

State militiamen, who signed up for short terms during the excitement of 1775, were not enough. “When men are irritated and the Passions inflamed,” he (Washington) write the President of Congress from Harlem, “they fly hastily and cheerfully to Arms; but, after the first emotions are over, to expect, among such People, as compose the bulk of an Army, that they are influenced by any other principles than those of Interest, is to look for what never did, and I fear never will happen.”

Washington’s plea to Congress reminds me that self interest will never drive a man to his highest attainment. Most people are coasting … they have never suffered or struggled to create anything bigger than themselves! Yet those who stood with Washington and put the emerging nation above themselves achieved the impossible – they defeated the British army and set America free from foreign control.