Ep. 53 - Journey through the Naval Academy w/ Midshipman Riley Wharton (Part I)

Knowing You Know Nothing

Show Notes: Welcome back to the Knowing You Know Nothing podcast! This is Episode 53. I was incredibly excited and honored to have a meaningful conversation with my former student and a current midshipman at the Navy Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. This conversation will open your eyes to what it was like for him to set his sights on future goals, attend the Academy, and persevere through challenges. He shares several literary sources that have inspired him along his journey and I have shared his notes/recommendations below. Riley's Show Notes to Share with Guests: Book Recommendations Man’s Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield The Virtues of War - Steven Pressfield Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein Tribe - Sebastian Junger The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle - J. Glenn Gray Message to Garcia - Elbert Hubbard Aristotle The virtue of character comes from habituation (ethos) Confucius “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Viktor Frankl “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” “Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it consistently sets for each individual.” “The more one forgets himself… by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love… the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.” J. Glenn Gray “unless human beings are pushed to the extreme, we are not so likely to confront simple and primal realities, or to reflect about them.” Lord Moran Anatomy of Courage “Their numbers were replaceable, their spiritual worth never could be.” Joseph Heinlein “Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part… and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live.” “Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes.” Steven Pressfield “We must excel the foe, not only as warriors but as men and as knights. They must say of us that we deserve their empire, for we surpass them in virtue and in self-command!” “Let us conduct ourselves in such a fashion that all nations wish to be our friends and all fear to be our enemies.” “An officer must lead from the front. How can we ask our soldiers to risk death if we ourselves shrink from hazard?” “Life is a battle, is it not? And how better to train for it than to be a soldier? For have you not noticed of these sages, my friends, that they are the consummate soldiers? Inured to pain, oblivious to hardship. Each takes up his post at dawn and does not relinquish it for thirst, hunger, heat, cold, fatigue. He is cheerful in all weathers, self-motivated, self-governed, self-commended.” Audio clips used from this source: Goalcast YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sK3wJAxGfs Recommended Podcasts: Reel Talk: A Movie Podcast Twitter: @reel_cast Chapter Podcast Host: Ben Malcomson Thoughtful-Three Questions Section Inspired by the book, “Consider This…Questions That Make You Think.” By Barbara Ann Kipfer. Thingstobehappyabout.com Twitter: @kyknownothing Music is from www.bensound.com Facebook Group: Knowing You Know Nothing (Join us!)