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The Best of the Boss
I had an idea about a tribute to our friend Boss Mongo, which I hope will be fitting. I doubt that I’m the right person to do this, but I want to do something.
I did not know the Boss personally. We never met, and never spoke, as far as I recall. I appreciated his posts and comments here at Ricochet — his fierce patriotism, his irreverent humor, his practical wisdom, his unique combination of toughness and kindness.
My idea is for each of us to share something from the Boss. It might be a quote from one his posts or comments, or a personal story from anyone blessed to have met him. Or whatever else you might want to say. I’ll start.
From Boss Mongo’s post on March 12, 2020, What? You Want to Live Forever?
There is a profound lack of perspective evident in the freak-out. Every morning when you wake, and you haven’t died in your sleep is a gift. Every morning, as you prepare for your day, you should be cognizant of the myriad ways you could face an untimely requirement to shuffle off this mortal coil. Some of the risks can be mitigated. Many can come out of the blue, and whatever risk mitigation measures you’ve employed, you’re going to wind up deader than fried chicken.
Most people, I think, are intellectually aware of the fact that they will die. Too, most are aware that their ticket might be punched far earlier than they would wish. That is a myopic view of life. One needs to accept mortality on a visceral level.
Not accepting, and contemplating, the uncertainty of life prevents a full appreciation and celebration of the gift of life we’ve been given.
Every dawn we meet hale, whole, and hearty is a cause for profound gratitude, and every sunset should evoke the same. I don’t like the term carpe diem, because it hints at an excuse for wanton hedonism (now, carpe per diem is a whole different proposition). But, one should treat each day as a gift, love family and friends as much and as hard as we can, and be ready to meet our Maker.
Those are the words of a great ‘Murican, I think.
Here is the link that will take you to his posts. All 252 of them.
Published in General
Thanks JG, like I told @arahant, I hadn’t teared up is the last 30 minutes…
Well put! This is what children (and adults) need to be learning! Second chances happen but should not be assumed. Live each day to its fullest.
There can be only one best of the Boss:
From our last PM exchange, a little over a month ago:
I’d sent Boss a link to an NR article, because (I said) it reminded me of him. It was about those who’ve gone from “Battlefield to Best Seller.” Military veterans who’ve turned their unique experience into stories which can inform, educate, and thrill, the rest of us.
As with all things Boss, he was interested, and we conversed for a bit In the course of which he let me know that Brad Taylor, one of the featured authors, was a good guy, a personal friend, and worth checking out as an author.
Perhaps some of those of us who are hoping and patiently waiting for “The Boss Book” should investigate: https://www.amazon.com/Brad-Taylor/e/B003UQZJ2U/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1
The last part of the conversation has yet to be written. Still working on it.
Great comments. Like the one re; Brad Taylor. Love the military/spy fictions. DeMille a favorite. But like Taylor’s and E-mailed him. He was Univ. of Texas Army ROTC which really got me riled up. I am an OU guy. And Navy. So some good back and forth. Great stories.
I especially liked his letter on Rush’s passing, featured in an issue of The Limbaugh Letter.
I also remember, from a post too long ago to find (I’m pretty sure I was still a moderator–so before March 2019) in which I’d rather sternly rebuked a member who, for quite some time, had been getting on everyone else’s nerves on a particular thread, a comment from Boss that started out “Marry me, She!” And then descended into a reverie in which he recalled that–oh wait–he was already married.
Lord, it made me laugh,
Yes! I loved the original version he posted here even better.
Here is the post in question, Rush Limbaugh: Marconi’s Titan. The opening is:
As far as I know this is the last comment he made on one of my posts:
It was on my review of The Family Business. I was thrilled to know he had liked a book I recommended. I always looked forward to his comments on my reviews.
The last part of Boss’s post strikes me as especially poignant now:
Tears flowed as I imagined his wife, The Lovely and Talented Mrs. Mongo, and his children, asking themselves the same question now, but of Boss’s absence.
From the outpouring of love, respect, grief, and disbelief, it appears that many of us are wondering the same thing.
The answer is the same: We go on. As he would expect. And we continue to stand up, speak up, and fight for the freedoms of this country that he and so many others so valiantly served, sacrificed for, and defended.
To borrow Boss’s words: We know how.
(And now we also have him to thank for it.)
Brendan has shown us and taught us what to do through his words and actions and how he lived his life.
Boss wrote a gripping short story, “They Nanny.” I recall with great clarity reading it, and it made my heart race.
One of the items in the story was the Nanny’s Emerald earring, which it seemed was a totem to help them Nanny recall what to do in a crisis.
May the memories of Boss and his love carry his family through his crisis.
https://ricochet.com/761166/the-nanny/comment-page-3/#comment-4795348
This…so prescient and fully lived