Sergeant Tony's Blog

A little boy and his dad found a cocoon.

“What is that?” asked the little boy.

“It’s a cocoon. It’s a little home where a caterpillar turns into a butterfly.” explained the dad.

Seeing a chance to have a little natural science lesson for his son, the dad took the cocoon inside the house so that the two of them could study the process.

Over the next few days the little boy watched in wonder, imagining how the caterpillar was transforming into a beautiful butterfly, and reporting the progress to his dad.

One morning before the dad left for work, he and his son watched as the cocoon started to move and shake. The little boy got very excited and wanted to know what was going on.

“The caterpillar has transformed into a butterfly and is now trying to get out of the cocoon!” said the dad.

The little boy’s eyes were glued to the shaking cocoon when the dad left for work.

When the dad returned home that evening, he found a terrible thing. The cocoon was still on the counter where he’d left it but it was open at one end. On the floor nearby lay the dead butterfly.

The dad called for his son who came into the kitchen to see what the dad had discovered.

“What happened?” asked the dad. “Did you see it?”

“Yes, I saw it and I tried to help.” answered the little boy, trying to hold back the tears.

“What do you mean you tried to help.”

“Well, I watched and watched and watched and the cocoon was shaking and the butterfly was trying so hard to get out. So, I helped him. I opened that end of the cocoon so that he could get out. But when he got out, he just fell on the floor and never moved again.”

The dad shook his head and then explained what happened.

“Son, the butterfly on the inside of the cocoon is weak and can’t fly. So it struggles everyday to get out of the cocoon. As it struggles to get out, its wings become stronger and stronger. When the butterfly’s wings are finally strong enough so that it is able to break out of the cocoon all by itself, its wings are finally strong enough for the butterfly to survive and fly.”

Over 2,500 years ago, the historian Thucydides, writing about the Great Peloponnesian War, said:
“We must remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the hardest school.”

He also said, “The state that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.” These were the first of many things I read about the history of combat and war when I was a young Marine Lance Corporal.

Today it seems the worst things parents can do to their kids is allow them to struggle.

Things are made easy for kids and then made easier again by parents who overindulge, pamper, and spoil their kids. As a parent myself, I know how easy it is to do. We want more for our kids than what we ourselves had. We want to protect them from … the things in life … that made us … who … we … are.

Wait, … what?

In the process, kids get robbed of the opportunities to be creative, to learn patience, to cope, to adapt, to improvise, and to solve problems. Everything is given, provided, or arranged by doting, but well meaning parents.

Then parents get in competition with their friends, who are also parents, as they try to keep up with the latest fad, craze, class, camp, or lesson. The Smith’s have their kids in a slew of stuff, so the Johnson’s kids have to join in too! (Relax Smith and Johnson families … I just picked random names! hahaha)

In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote, “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”

There seems to be a woeful lack of “dearness.”

Some parents I know, wanting and hoping to be good parents, probably need professional scheduling software for their computers just to keep up with all of the camps, classes, and superfluous play-dates. Kids are over-scheduled, overindulged, and egocentric. They have a growing sense of entitlement and a diminishing sense of respect and knowledge of proper behavior towards adults and their environment. A visit to any fast food joint at lunchtime this summer will be more than enough evidence to make my point.

The kids learn that they are the center of their parent’s lives and that mom and dad’s role is to make them happy and comfortable. The kids aren’t an addition to their parent’s lives … they ARE their parent’s lives.

It’s a tough balancing act, I know. But today there’s no act at all. The scales are clearly out of balance.

When I returned from Japan in 1998, I joined the faculty and coaching staff of a local private high school. The lexicon of new words added to my vocabulary during those first few months included the phrase, “participation trophy.”

Say again?

“Everyone gets a trophy at the end of the season, Coach Ludlow, and you need to order them now,” said the Athletic Director.

I don’t have a learning disability, but I had to have that one explained to me more than twice.

I refused to do it.

OMG! You’d have thought that I’d just committed high treason. Parents, teachers, and administrators got mad at me. But oddly enough, none of the kids got mad at me. See, they’d been getting those worthless and meaningless “participation trophies” ever since they were in Little League and another one to clutter up their shelves wasn’t going to mean anything.

No dearness.

Eventually I had to give in and buy the participation trophies … just to appease the adults!

The sense of accomplishment that you get from participating in USMC Fitness BOOT CAMP is measured by a number of things. Two of those sources of accomplishment come from 1) the workout is outside, and 2) the ungodly hour of the most popular class, the 5:30 AM class.

Bragging rights are pretty cool. You’ve chosen one of the hardest workouts that you can do without actually joining the Marine Corps and you’re doing it under Spartan conditions! (THIS … IS … SPARTA!)

Bragging rights … because you struggle and you overcome. Because you work hard and take a backseat to no other workout!

Allow your kid to work hard … and be bored … to be uncomfortable … and to have to wait on things.

Teach them the meaning of dearness.

Give them the gift of struggle. It will make their wings strong. And when it is time, they will soar on their own! And isn’t that what you really and truly want for your kids?

“For he is best who is trained in the hardest school.”

By the way, your kids are most welcome on the Quarterdeck!

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TUESDAY & THURSDAY EVENING CLASS

The Tuesday and Thursday evening classes meet at St. Agnes’ track. These are cardio (walking/jogging/running) workouts and they begin at 5:45 PM.

St. Agnes is at the corner of Walnut Grove and Mendenhall.

Should the St. Agnes track be occupied or the field being used, making the track unavailable to us, we’ll go to St. Mary’s track, at Walnut Grove and Perkins.

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0830 HIATUS

The 0830 class is on hiatus. The class will be called back into active duty when the chirrens go back to school! You 0830 Boot Campers join the 0645 class!

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CALENDAR

A calendar has been added to the official USMC Fitness BOOT CAMP website.

http://www.usmcfitnessbootcamp.com/calendar.html

For you visual learners, you’ll find this an easy way to glance at the week or month and see where the workouts will be, if there’s a venue change.

Tomorrow, Thursday, June 17, is BOGA at 0530!

Tuesday, June 22, we’ll be climbing Mt. Fuji!

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BOOT CAMP DISCOUNTS AND FACEBOOK EXPERIMENT!

So far this experiment has been pretty amazing!
Here’s how it works!

Make a Facebook status update and get a discount!

For every status update that you make that references:
“USMC Fitness Boot Camp,”
“Sgt. Tony’s Boot Camp,”
“Tony’s Boot Camp,”
or something similar, you can take $2.50 off your reenlistment fee!
Up to $20 off for any given month!

Your status update has to be a specific reference to USMC Fitness BOOT CAMP or to me specifically by name.

“Great Boot Camp workout with Sgt. Tony this morning!” is good!
“I love USMC Fitness BOOT CAMP!” is good!
“I love Sgt. Tony and his Boot Camp ROCKS!!” is REALLY good!

You get the idea! Use your own wording and personality, just include the specifics.

Restrict yourself to just one of these status updates per day. You don’t want 8 status updates in a row going out on the same day!

So log on and get started now!

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WANT TO LOSE 15 POUNDS BY THE END OF JULY?

Take Shape For Life is the BEST weight loss program I know of. If you’d like to lose weight talk to me.

You can also go to www.combatchallenge.tsfl.com/

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What would you do if money were not an issue, fear were not a factor, and failure were not an option?

To your optimum health and fitness!

SEE YOU ON THE QUARTERDECK!

Tony

Sergeant Major Tony Ludlow

USMC Fitness BOOT CAMP, Commanding
Mailing address: 4888 Southern Ave., Memphis, TN 38117
Cell Phone: 901-644-0145
www.usmcfitnessbootcamp.com

http://www.combatchallenge.tsfl.com/esuite/home/combatchallenge/