Review: A Sense of Honor, by James Webb

     I was reflecting on this book, which I read back when I was at the Naval Academy (I think all the plebes in 2nd co. were ordered to read it, certainly our Youngsters talked about it with us, but I think the 2nd classmen, class of ’90, were the ones who were really big on the book for some reason. I think that the book was published in 1986, which is when they would have started plebe summer…). I told a former manager at a company, when she asked me about my Plebe year,  back in 1994 or 1995 that there was nothing for me to learn from the USNA experience and she told me to think about it some more. Well, I see that she was right. But it’s only just coming into being, this lesson. It needs to finish germinating but I can already see the seed of an idea, the lessons to be learned. Amazing that it can take 20 years almost to learn these lessons. My own sense of honor back at that time demanded that I stand up to several upperclassmen telling me to be gung-ho about unnecessary killing and singing cadences about napalm sticking to kids. The upperclassmen decided that I was too squeamish to be in ‘their’ navy.
Anyway, thinking on this book I read back then, A Sense of Honor brought me to some comments about honor, and this one was particularly interesting. He feels honor is a ‘better’ man’s morality, but I see that as a bit snobbish personally. I prefer to see honor as a way of living that upholds the dignity of all.

(2018 note: This original review, above, was a LiveJournal post that I made back in 2008. Twenty years after I left Annapolis. Now 28 yrs…
Looking back, now I see that much of the criticisms of the upperclassmen and my classmates regarding my brain-dumping was a result of my then  not yet diagnosed PTSD (which I now know showed up at least as early as when I was eleven years old based on being told by therapists, and then reading up to confirm, about how children with PTSD present differently from adults with PTSD…), which I’d still like to know whether all those psych tests we took on Induction Day showed in any way…)

I always think about this book when I think of episodes of Babylon 5, like the one that I’m scheduling for this Monday. How we define the word honor, a sense of honor, and how we act on those ideals makes us who we are, perhaps?

  These sentiments are an important part of what led to of Project Do Better’s Service Adulthood Challenge,

 

Phase II.

Shira

Action Items:

1.) Dear Readers, share your thoughts on this book, please.

2.) Write a story, post or comment that uses those thoughts.

*****************

Click here for:

Learning through story:

                                                   Babylon5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin,  La Casa de Papel/Money Heist, or El Ministerio del Tiempo Reviews

Learning via Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or

 Learning from Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing (including Ann & Anna…)

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.  This work is my personal way (as opposed to founding the Project, overall) of contributing to building tools that can help increase empathy and compassion in our world.  Story, as part of how we see our world, helps us make sense of and define our actions in this world.  And remember how important story is also as part of this project. Let’s Do Better.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

ShiraDest

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.