Bookfessions #999 and Commentary

I can relate to this sentiment; not that I can recall having difficulty learning to read (the mechanics of it), only that books didn’t grab my attention for many, many years.  There seemed to be so little written of interest to young boys.  I distinctly recall Ken Platt’s The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear (1971, Laurel Leaf).  That was the first truly great novel that I read.  I followed that with some Danny Orlis (Bernard Palmer) adventures which I received through a church pastor and his son (a large, 50+ book series published from the late 50’s through the early 70’s by Moody Books, Back to the Bible, and Tyndale).  From there I ventured into the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan (~25, from 1912-1965), the Mucker (3, from 1914-1917), and John Carter’s adventures on red planet, Barsoom (11 books, from 1912 to 1964). 

Those were some glory days in my early education.  Of course, my reading was somewhat limited by the fact that I felt the need to grab my knife, bag, rope, compass, flashlight, canteen, stick, lunch and my dog, a Great Dane by the name of Bear, and run off into the hills and mountains to find my own adventures.  Reading wasn’t sufficient by itself.  The adventure series sure stimulated my spirit for both adventure and seeking God.  Both excellent outcomes in my view.  If my Jake Sloan Adventures captured the hearts of youth and young adults reading them in that same way I would be ecstatic (and extremely grateful for God’s blessing on the project).

Bernard Palmer's Danny Orlis Adventures

Did you know that Bernard Palmer's Danny Orlis adventures series, the Christian youth fiction books that inspired me to read as a kid, are named as Amazon Editors' Favorite Books of the Year for 2014?!  How cool is THAT?!!!

Many of those books are older than I am!  It's amazing to me that editors of this era would consider those books as so special as to be FAVORITES.  I figure, there must be some Christians among those editors.  Outstanding!

Perhaps I should approach Moody or Tyndale about the Jake Sloan Adventure series. Since they have Palmer's series as such a nice example of youth adventure literature. Those 50+ books didn't just vanish into the history of pulp fiction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bookfessions #981 and Commentary

 Bookfessions #981

I like this one, too, as it brings to mind the impact of fiction.  Yes, it's "just" fiction, and you cannot sit there and extract your life principles from a quick reference to the Table of Contents.  

However, if you've had any experience reading the Bible, for instance, or reading classic literature (such as Shakespeare's plays, Hemingway, Thurber, Steinbeck, and many, many others) you have a sense of how you can reflect back on examples of both good and poor human behavior, including the consequences that often follow those life decisions.

In this Bookfession observation the author is noticing how a book both affirms your own sense of good, better, best, and plain old bad relationship decisions.  The story may even encourage your own sense of worth, the value of good-quality relationships, and the need to maintain high standards for yourself.

I heard from a speaker this past weekend that, while the national average of destroyed marriages hovers somewhere around 50% (for those in the Christian church as well, sadly enough), the average in California is (he reports) around 75%!  I was amazed to hear it.  I am still amazed by the 50%.  But 75% is almost beyond belief.  I mean, even if you carry reservations for marriage in a general sense, and you agree that the social contract of exclusive fidelity to another, whom we assume you also love, this statistic represents a boat-load of brokenness, sadness, pain, long-term struggle with self-worth, and both immediate and long-term crises of trust in nearly any relationship afterward. 

Imagine how a dozen really good books that included healthy relationships, ones that made the reader say, it "made my standards for a relationship higher," might impact the world?  It's encouraging to know there are still such books being written.  Debbie Macomber and Nicholas Sparks both come to mind.  My wife has read almost everything these two have written (she's still working to find the rest of Macomber's material). 

As an author interested in portraying good relational choices among young adults I hope that my books rise to that level for readers.  I hope my readers might someday reflect on my novels the same way the Bookfessions author does.  Something like, "Trident's Flame made my standards for a relationship higher."  A very cool thought.  Kudos to Bookfessions!

Fox Reader With One of His Favs, Sanctum Threat

Sanctum Threat has been up for a week or two now, and several have downloaded it from Amazon.  Both digital and hardcopy formats are available. 

One of my students downloaded an earlier digital version but found the images within were not showing up on his device.  I'm looking into why that might be. 

It could be the pdf-to-mobi conversion issues they have at Kindle.  I finally had to reload the book as a MS Word document to ensure it looked the way it was supposed to.  (Personally, I think they should take pdf off their list of acceptable formats.)

http://www.amazon.com/Sanctum-Threat-Jake-Sloan-Adventures-ebook/dp/B00MS89JAE

Hard copy and Digital copies of SANCTUM THREAT are now available!

 Both book types are available through Amazon!

Here is the link for them. 

Not sure why Amazon had trouble completing those.  Kindle seemed to load just fine (once I got past the fact that they don't convert PDF files well... I eventually loaded a simple Word document). 

Nick Fury (left) is a little concerned about the conversion programs over at CreateSpace and Kindle. 

Here is a nice weapons cache for young Jake Sloan's next mission.  He may need something a little more powerful than usual.  He's headed to India, Bangladesh, and London.  It's still Operation DEW Drop, but its continuation and conclusion.

The next time we catch up with Jake Sloan (that is, after Operation DEW Drop) will be in his home town while working on the horse ranch of Mr. Walsh.  It also introduces Jake's very first solo Private Investigation job. 

The tendrils of that breach in security reach into the dark world of a Saudi Prince by the name of Assad.  Assad may be of noble birth, but he is not noble in character.  Jake discovers this nasty fact when he tracks down the prince's henchmen in Indonesia in the midst of human trafficking.  That's where the adventure begins.

I don't have a title (or ending) for this operation quite yet; I just know that it immediately precedes Force Multiplier (an operation that occurs in French Polynesia).

Bookfessions #1016 Plus My Commentary

Bookfessions.tumblr.com has been a fun site to visit due to the numerous thoughtful observations they make about reading, books, stories, etc.

It like 1016 (noted here), because it's the sort of observation I find myself wondering about asI write the Jake Sloan novels.  Should I include a map of the area?  Would the reader like a graphic of the location where the adventure is happening?  Do readers have an appreciation for location and/or geography? 

As a reader I know that I do, and part of my goal as a writer is to create what I think I would like to see in a book were I perusing the shelves.  That's been one of the basic pieces of advice I've taken to heart as I embarked on this adventure (of novel writing):  Write the novel you would like to see on the shelf but haven't yet.  Pretty good advice, I believe. 

It forces you to believe in your own sense of quality, genre, characterization, plot flow and plot complexity... those sorts of things. 

Part of what inspired me to attempt the feat in the first place was reading Frank Peretti's teen/young adult novels (Dr. Cooper Family adventures).  http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Throat-Cooper-Adventure-Series/dp/1581346182

 

My kids absolutely loved them, but the series was discontinued.  I wanted to see more of them on the shelves, or more novels like them on the shelves.  Since my kids were growing up in the process I thought a slightly older character (in the young adult age range) might be in order.  So after a brainstorming session during one of our San Diego road trips to visit the grandparents, Jake Sloan Adventures were born.  I think they are just the sort of novels young Christian youth might like to read. 

I hope that including an occasional map will help readers visualize where the adventure takes place.

Sanctum Threat Available

Sanctum Threat is up for sale!!!

The CreateSpace estore has the hard copy ready.  Kindle will have the digital version ready later today, and Amazon.com their hard copy by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week (Aug.26th, 27th).

Here is the CreateSpace estore link:
https://www.createspace.com/4779455

A Brief Author Bio at Novel Crossing

Dan was born and raised in California, attended college there, with the one exception of grad school (Southern Illinois), and has taught both high school and college since the late 90's.  He presently teaches college-level communication courses in Monterey (topics such as Public Speaking, Group/Team Communication, Leadership Communication, Intercultural Communication, Oral Interpretation, Interpersonal Communication).

Having been raised in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada range Dan loves finding beautiful peaks along the West Coast to climb.  His favorites thus far have been Mt. Shasta, Mt. Whitney, Lassen Peak, and a little point in the middle of Cuyamaca State Park called Stonewall Peak.  Future goals include Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Williams, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Rainier, all West Coast peaks.

Ministry over the years has been focused on young adults and teens, beginning with summer camps in Northern California (Wolf Mountain, Camp Conner, Mt. Hope).  After serving in Mexico, Venezuela and Columbia with IYM (International Youth Mission, now renamed International Action Ministries under Rick Johnson) Dan returned in successive summers to serve as a boot camp team trainer.  Boot camps were conducted in the Anza-Borrego desert and Sonoma (a forested community in the Sierra Nevada range).  IYM focused on small teams of young men who served among front-line missions posts, especially those doing Bible translation for unreached people groups (Wycliffe and New Tribes Missions especially).  The Amazon jungle was often their end point for that service and the environment was not always inviting, either physically or politically.  So preparing them for that -- for close-knit teamwork, service under conditions of discomfort and fatigue, long days of labor in humid, inhospitable conditions, and working with odd sleep hours -- became a paramount training goal.  Dan continues to serve the young adult and teen population through local church youth groups.
 
And most recently his work has expanded into authoring YA literature with the publication of Trident's Flame (2012) with NavPress.  Forthcoming novels include Sanctum Threat (2013) and Choke Point (2014) through Alopex Publishing.  There are currently five books in the Jake Sloan Adventures, an action-adventures series focused on a 17-year old young man who aspires to follow his father’s footsteps into the world of espionage and special operations.  They are described as romaction novels as well since there is a significant relationship that develops between Jake Sloan a young lady whom he meets on his very first adventure in Alaska.  See jakesloanadventures.blogspot.com and Jake Sloan Adventures on Facebook.

 

Novel Crossing:

http://www.novelcrossing.com/author/6896/danielfox

A retired Coast Guarder reviews Trident's Flame!

Here is our 14th reviewer!  A retired Coast Guard sailor!  Ron Katz!  Thanks, Ron!

Here is his Amazon review:

5 out of 5 stars.

Outstanding work, well done.

By Ronald R. Katz on August 8, 2014

Format: Paperback

 

Being retired military, I had trouble putting the book down.
Looking forward to the next one and to see how they catch the mole?

Great book great author, keep them coming.

Thanks,
Ron Katz, USCG(RET)

 

Love those old salt sailors!  Ron was previously in the US Navy, a blue-water sailor, then finished his career with the USCG.  Glad to have him aboard!

 

Thanks, Ron.

A big Thank You to our two most recent reviewers on Amazon! Todd and Irene!

By Todd B. Weber on Amazon.com: 5 out of 5 stars.

"Trident’s Flame is a great book, and is destined to become a classic ..." (July 9, 2014)

Trident’s Flame is an exciting and engrossing book. Dan Fox treats us to detailed descriptions that draw us in, dazzles us with heart-pumping action sequences, and sensitively depicts the inner lives of his characters. The main hero—Jake Sloan—is heroic and admirable, but fully human and fully a young man. The book teaches a lot about life—the relationship between a father and a son, the growing affection between a young man and a young woman, and, too, the evil there is in the world. Trident’s Flame is a great book, and is destined to become a classic in its genre.

By Irene Capps on Amazon.com:  5 out of 5 stars.

"Looking forward to the sequel."  (April 22, 2014)

I enjoyed reading this book. It was filled with action, adventure, mystery, and a little romance. With all that going on, it was refreshing to see the main character keep his honor, integrity, and faith in God. I was left wanting to read more when I finished it.

Art of Manliness post, adding to the Essential Jeremaid reading list: Fatherless America (1996)

Just posted this in response to Essential Jeremiads: 16 Cultural Critiques Every Man Should Read by Brett & Kate McKay (originally posted July 14, 2014).

Art of Manliness site: Essential Jeremaid reading list of 16 books.


Recommended read: Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem (1996), by David Blankenhorn.

Described as "A compelling and controversial exploration of absentee fathers and their impact on the nation" on Amazon's summary, I would recommend it as a good starting point for discussions on masculinity and fathering. It's a tad dated on research (I so wish Blankenhorn would update this work... especially since the demographic landscape changes every decade), but I think it's a solid commentary. Definitely something to get you thinking about fathering, the connection between fathering and a guy's sense of identity, value/care/love for your children (present or future), etc.

Admiral McRaven's Commencement Address... Change the World

I came across this at the Art of Manliness website. Art of Manliness link to McRaven's speech

His message:  CHANGE THE WORLD... START BY MAKING YOUR BED

 A solid commencement address; this one by Admiral McRaven, SEAL and commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. He was in charge of the SEAL Team/SOC operation to hunt down "Geronimo" (if you watched Zero Dark Thirty you saw him portrayed at the end).

 I thought of my own sons when I read this... and of the young men in our church college & career group (United, at Cypress Church, Monterey).

 

 

Here is McRaven portrayed in Zero Dark Thirty:

------------------------->

A couple shots of the Admiral, formal and informal:

<----------------------

The one qualification I would add to the Admiral's address is that if "ringing a bell" is required to follow your own convictions, and doesn't equal quitting on life, then ring the bell you must. Simply never let a "No" to one direction in life become a "No" to others.

 

Two examples spring to mind immediately: Eric Liddell (pictured to right and below)... --------------------->

  ... and Jim Elliot ---> 

Thank God that Eric Liddell and Jim Elliot said "Pass" to careers in corporate profiteering, and instead, said "Yes" to serving those who would be lost without hearing about God's grace.

Being rich in the world's eyes and poor toward God is a big, big mistake... with eternal consequences. He said as much, back in the day, "So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 21:12, ESV)

 

====================    Here is the Admiral's excellent speech   =================

President Powers, Provost Fenves, Deans, members of the faculty, family and friends and most importantly, the class of 2014. Congratulations on your achievement.

It’s been almost 37 years to the day that I graduated from UT.

I remember a lot of things about that day.

I remember I had throbbing headache from a party the night before. I remember I had a serious girlfriend, whom I later married — that’s important to remember by the way — and I remember that I was getting commissioned in the Navy that day.

But of all the things I remember, I don’t have a clue who the commencement speaker was that evening and I certainly don’t remember anything they said.

So…acknowledging that fact — if I can’t make this commencement speech memorable — I will at least try to make it short.

The University’s slogan is,

“What starts here changes the world.”

I have to admit – I kinda like it.

“What starts here changes the world.”

Tonight there are almost 8,000 students graduating from UT.

That great paragon of analytical rigor, Ask.Com says that the average American will meet 10,000 people in their life time.

That’s a lot of folks.

But, if every one of you changed the lives of just ten people – and each one of those folks changed the lives of another ten people — just ten — then in five generations — 125 years — the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people.

800 million people — think of it — over twice the population of the United States. Go one more generation and you can change the entire population of the world — 8 billion people.

If you think it’s hard to change the lives of ten people — change their lives forever — you’re wrong.

I saw it happen every day in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A young Army officer makes a decision to go left instead of right down a road in Baghdad and the ten soldiers in his squad are saved from close-in ambush.

In Kandahar province, Afghanistan, a non-commissioned officer from the Female Engagement Team senses something isn’t right and directs the infantry platoon away from a 500-pound IED, saving the lives of a dozen soldiers.

But, if you think about it, not only were these soldiers saved by the decisions of one person, but their children yet unborn – were also saved. And their children’s children — were saved.

Generations were saved by one decision — by one person.

But changing the world can happen anywhere and anyone can do it.

So, what starts here can indeed change the world, but the question is…what will the world look like after you change it?

Well, I am confident that it will look much, much better, but if you will humor this old sailor for just a moment, I have a few suggestions that may help you on your way to a better a world.

And while these lessons were learned during my time in the military, I can assure you that it matters not whether you ever served a day in uniform.

It matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation, or your social status.

Our struggles in this world are similar and the lessons to overcome those struggles and to move forward — changing ourselves and the world around us — will apply equally to all.

I have been a Navy SEAL for 36 years. But it all began when I left UT for Basic SEAL training in Coronado, California.

Basic SEAL training is six months of long torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable.

It is six months of being constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy SEAL.

But, the training also seeks to find those students who can lead in an environment of constant stress, chaos, failure and hardships.

To me basic SEAL training was a life time of challenges crammed into six months.

So, here are the ten lessons I learned from basic SEAL training that hopefully will be of value to you as you move forward in life.

Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed.

If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack — rack — that’s Navy talk for bed.

It was a simple task – mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that we were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle-hardened SEALs – but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.

If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.

By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.

If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.

And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

During SEAL training the students are broken down into boat crews. Each crew is seven students – three on each side of a small rubber boat and one coxswain to help guide the dingy.

Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surfzone and paddle several miles down the coast.

In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high and it is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in.

Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously tossed back on the beach.

For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle.

You can’t change the world alone — you will need some help – and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them.

If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.

Over a few weeks of difficult training my SEAL class which started with 150 men was down to just 35. There were now six boat crews of seven men each.

I was in the boat with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had was made up of the the little guys — the munchkin crew we called them – no one was over about 5-foot-five.

The munchkin boat crew had one American Indian, one African American, one Polish America, one Greek American, one Italian American, and two tough kids from the mid-west.

They out paddled, out-ran, and out-swam all the other boat crews.

The big men in the other boat crews would always make good-natured fun of the tiny little flippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim.

But somehow these little guys, from every corner of the nation and the world, always had the last laugh – swimming faster than everyone and reaching the shore long before the rest of us.

SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status.

If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.

Several times a week, the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. It was exceptionally thorough.

Your hat had to be perfectly starched, your uniform immaculately pressed and your belt buckle shiny and void of any smudges.

But it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into starching your hat, or pressing your uniform or polishing your belt buckle — it just wasn’t good enough.

The instructors would fine “something” wrong.

For failing the uniform inspection, the student had to run, fully clothed into the surfzone and then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand.

The effect was known as a “sugar cookie.” You stayed in that uniform the rest of the day — cold, wet and sandy.

There were many a student who just couldn’t accept the fact that all their effort was in vain. That no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right — it was unappreciated.

Those students didn’t make it through training.

Those students didn’t understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect uniform.

Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie.

It’s just the way life is sometimes.

If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.

Every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical events – long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics — something designed to test your mettle.

Every event had standards — times you had to meet. If you failed to meet those standards your name was posted on a list and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to — a “circus.”

A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics — designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit.

No one wanted a circus.

A circus meant that for that day you didn’t measure up. A circus meant more fatigue – and more fatigue meant that the following day would be more difficult – and more circuses were likely.

But at some time during SEAL training, everyone — everyone – made the circus list.

But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. Overtime those students — who did two hours of extra calisthenics – got stronger and stronger.

The pain of the circuses built inner strength — built physical resiliency.

Life is filled with circuses.

You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core.

But if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.

At least twice a week, the trainees were required to run the obstacle course. The obstacle course contained 25 obstacles including a ten-foot high wall, a 30-foot cargo net, and a barbed wire crawl to name a few.

But the most challenging obstacle was the slide for life. It had a three-level 30-foot tower at one end and a one-level tower at the other. In between was a 200-foot long rope.

You had to climb the three-tiered tower and once at the top, you grabbed the rope, swung underneath the rope and pulled yourself hand over hand until you got to the other end.

The record for the obstacle course had stood for years when my class began training in 1977.

The record seemed unbeatable, until one day, a student decided to go down the slide for life – head first.

Instead of swinging his body underneath the rope and inching his way down, he bravely mounted the TOP of the rope and thrust himself forward.

It was a dangerous move – seemingly foolish, and fraught with risk. Failure could mean injury and being dropped from the training.

Without hesitation – the student slid down the rope – perilously fast, instead of several minutes, it only took him half that time and by the end of the course he had broken the record.

If you want to change the world sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first.

During the land warfare phase of training, the students are flown out to San Clemente Island which lies off the coast of San Diego.

The waters off San Clemente are a breeding ground for the great white sharks. To pass SEAL training there are a series of long swims that must be completed. One is the night swim.

Before the swim the instructors joyfully brief the trainees on all the species of sharks that inhabit the waters off San Clemente.

They assure you, however, that no student has ever been eaten by a shark — at least not recently.

But, you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your position — stand your ground. Do not swim away. Do not act afraid.

And if the shark, hungry for a midnight snack, darts towards you — then summon up all your strength and punch him in the snout and he will turn and swim away.

There are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim you will have to deal with them.

So, If you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.

As Navy SEALs one of our jobs is to conduct underwater attacks against enemy shipping. We practiced this technique extensively during basic training.

The ship attack mission is where a pair of SEAL divers is dropped off outside an enemy harbor and then swims well over two miles — underwater – using nothing but a depth gauge and a compass to get to their target.

During the entire swim, even well below the surface there is some light that comes through. It is comforting to know that there is open water above you.

But as you approach the ship, which is tied to a pier, the light begins to fade. The steel structure of the ship blocks the moonlight – it blocks the surrounding street lamps – it blocks all ambient light.

To be successful in your mission, you have to swim under the ship and find the keel — the centerline and the deepest part of the ship.

This is your objective. But the keel is also the darkest part of the ship — where you cannot see your hand in front of your face, where the noise from the ship’s machinery is deafening and where it is easy to get disoriented and fail.

Every SEAL knows that under the keel, at the darkest moment of the mission – is the time when you must be calm, composed — when all your tactical skills, your physical power and all your inner strength must be brought to bare.

If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.

The ninth week of training is referred to as “Hell Week.” It is six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment and one special day at the Mud Flats — the Mud Flats are area between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the Tijuana slues — a swampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you.

It is on Wednesday of Hell Week that you paddle down to the mud flats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing cold mud, the howling wind and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors.

As the sun began to set that Wednesday evening, my training class, having committed some “egregious infraction of the rules” was ordered into the mud.

The mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit — just five men and we could get out of the oppressive cold.

Looking around the mud flat it was apparent that some students were about to give up. It was still over 8 hours till the sun came up – eight more hours of bone chilling cold.

The chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees were so loud it was hard to hear anything – and then, one voice began to echo through the night — one voice raised in song.

The song was terribly out of tune, but sung with great enthusiastic.

One voice became two and two became three and before long everyone in the class was singing.

We knew that if one man could rise above the misery then others could as well.

The instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing — but the singing persisted.

And somehow – the mud seemed a little warmer, the wind a little tamer and the dawn not so far away.

If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. The power of one person — Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandella and even a young girl from Pakistan — Mallah — one person can change the world by giving people hope.

So, if you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.

Finally, in SEAL training there is a bell. A brass bell that hangs in the center of the compound for all the students to see.

All you have to do to quit is ring the bell. Ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at 5 o’clock. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the freezing cold swims.

Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the PT — and you no longer have to endure the hardships of training.

Just ring the bell.

If you want to change the world don’t ever, ever ring the bell.

To the graduating class of 2014, you are moments away from graduating. Moments away from beginning your journey through life. Moments away starting to change the world — for the better.

It will not be easy.

But, YOU are the class of 2014 — the class that can affect the lives of 800 million people in the next century.

Start each day with a task completed.

Find someone to help you through life.

Respect everyone.

Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if take you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up – if you do these things, then next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today and — what started here will indeed have changed the world — for the better.

Thank you very much. Hook ‘em horns.