I saw Dan Crenshaw for the first time long before he popped up on Saturday Night Live in the form of Pete Davidson bit. The two don’t even belong in the same sentence lol. I noticed him amidst the background shots of some congressional B-roll, by his dastardly good looks a-la Russel Crowe, fit with a Hollywood-engraved, shapely eye patch. I, an explorer of tales immediately began my google searches.
What I found maybe somewhere around a year ago after searching “congressman eyepatch” was one of the most inspiring men I’ve found in my 30 years. I have been waiting and dropping hints to some of my cohorts about how he will be the next president, or at least a president someday. My fleeting thoughts at that point regarded more of a hope that I’d look smart or savvy for recognizing his value immediately.
Since these first impersonal introductions between me and the Texas Republican Congressman, he’s slowly started creeping more and more into the public EYE. I was raised in a Democrat culture and at 18 I randomly wrote my name on a door-to-door walker’s sheet to be a registered Independent”. At the time I too was hoping to look smart or savvy for recognizing the value. Though he runs as a republican, I can’t help but see that his spiritual value is higher than any political boundary.
I just purchased his book, entitled “Fortitude” and started reading the first few chapters. I’m already engrossed and utterly inspired. I recommend anyone pick this book up, especially during this time. I am only a few pages in, but he has already opened up about the elephant in the room that is his missing eye, and his Navy SEAL lifestyle.
His remarkable ability to communicate in such a humor-filled, practical, leading way is glaring. His tales are told from the mind of someone you could only put together in a simulation or movie script. His morals are founded in his quest for truth that began as a boy and continues today at only 35. I’ll leave you with one personal moment of inspiration for now.
He talks about his injuries sustained in war, victim of an IED explosion that tore literally all of the limbs of the man 2 feet way. He talks about getting out of there, waking up in Germany and then in Maryland. At one point, due to the extreme nature of how fragile his one remaining eye was, (again this blog summary does not do justice to the true full story from his lens, so read for yourself please) he was forced to be face down for 6 weeks or be blind forever.
Let’s just look at that for one moment the next time we have a hard time. We’ve been free Americans on Unemployment, with the coffee hot and the internet fast for 6 weeks-ish. We’ve been able to communicate visually and interpret our families and loved ones and see the Tiger King and the NFL draft.
Imagine being forced to lay face down, with a glass bubble wrapped around your eyeball, with shrapnel and deep gouges and copper-wire-filled scrapes all over your body for at least 6 weeks-ish, just to be able to see out of your one eye.
Are you inspired yet? Read for yourself… I’m EXCITED to see a man of valor in this country. And he’s just getting started. I’ll leave you with this question for yourself..
Are you wallowing in the mire? or wading through the muck?
