"Ben, I was looking at your LinkedIn page and I was wondering what exactly is.... a WARRIOR POET?" You have it listed in your LinkedIn headline.
The above question was asked of me during a recent meeting.
This was not the first time I have been asked this question, but this time I was inspired to share the Why behind it with this post.
Let's dive into it!
Here are a few answers in no particular order:
Braveheart, 1995 - an all-time favorite movie of mine
As we watch the sword of William Wallace's best friend Hamish fly through the air and stick into the ground, we hear William Wallace played by Mel Gibson narrate the final scene:
"In the year of our lord thirteen-fourteen, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered charged the fields of Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom"
Still gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.
The below information is credited to the work done by Capt. Ronald F. Roberts, United States Army in an article written in the August 2019 NCO Journal.
This article provides an amazing description and history behind the warrior poet ethos.
Like the knight, the warrior poet embodies the perfect balance between the physical, spiritual, and intellectual being. These ideals were also interpreted similarly by other cultures such as the Japanese Samurai warrior and their Code of Bushido (Clark, 2008).
“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”(Thucydides Athenian general — 400 B.C.)
During a recent coaching seminar I was asked to provide a powerful a word I felt best described me.
I chose the word FIERCE - showing a heartfelt and powerful intensity (picturing the roar of a lion) Ferocity is a warrior trait.
I am also a big fan of the movie Dead Poet's Society starring Robin Williams.
My favorite scene is when he paraphrases Whitman's Oh Me! Oh Life!
I think a poet as an individual with a desire to question and embrace the observable universe.
Though their work they offer a different perspective and perhaps drive free thinking.
A warrior with a burning desire to learn to grown to lead.
The warrior poet is a philosophy much like one we already know very well. A model of continual self-improvement.
You many know it by the name Mamba Mentality.
Like Kobe...it's just cool.