Tom Morris [29:59]: My wife and I visited Russia right after the breakup of the Soviet Union. We were in St. Petersburg, a formerly beautiful city, but all the 20th century architecture was horrible and ugly, covered with graffiti.
There was not a yard that didn't have weeds 3 feet high. It was just squalor. Ugliness. All their military equipment was rusted. It was just like, ugliness—as far as I could see. It was death to the spirit.
How did people live like this for so long under communism before they said, “Okay, we got to do something about this?” Right?
Right now, things have gotten so bad in America that I think it's a wonderful wakeup call to a lot of people who realize we can't just keep complaining.
Complaining is its own spectator sport. We got to start doing something. And so that's why I wrote this book, The Everyday Patriot, because it surprises people to learn. The book is about doing something, the small things that we can do, where we are every day.
Jill Konrath [31:01]: In the sales field. I'm saying this because a lot of people come from my newsletter list in the sales field. We were told that hope is not a strategy.
Tom Morris [31:09]: Right.
Jill Konrath [31:10]: Hope is not a strategy.
Tom Morris [31:11]: That's right. A very famous and you know where we get that statement? That statement came when Barack Obama was elected president and a business professor somewhere, because Obama kept talking about hope.
A business professor somewhere sent him a letter in which that sentence occurred. Hope is not a strategy. And so a lot of people became dismissive about hope when that started circulating. Right.
But the truth is, if hope is not behind every strategy, none of those strategies are going to work. So hope itself isn't a strategy, but it's the power behind any strategy that works.
Jill Konrath [31:48]: It's the basis. I mean, if you don't have hope, you can't go forward. And that's why so many people are spinning in their seats.
Tom Morris [31:55]: Now.
Jill Konrath [31:55]: What do you say we should be doing to become an “everyday patriot?”
Tom Morris [32:02]: Give me some well, let me go back. I'll go back to the ancient world again. This time, I'll go back to Rome.
Jill Konrath [32:08]: But I am going to bring you back today before we're done with this, okay?
Tom Morris [32:13]: We won't just live in the past. But there was this guy named Heracles. Nobody's heard of this guy. He was a second century Roman stoic philosopher, and he had this amazing idea that was forgotten until just very recently.
He said that everybody's life can be mapped out in a certain way by a set of concentric circles. Now, think of the old archery target, right? The red and blue and white circles, concentric circles.
He said, the innermost circle of all is you, your heart, and your mind. If you want to live a good life, work on your innermost self, your own heart and mind, make them as healthy and as strong as they can be.
Then you can contribute in a positive way to the next circle out, which is your home, your family. And you work on your home and family to make them as healthy and as strong as they can be.
And then you can contribute to the next circle out, which is your neighborhood. You contribute your family's bounty and goodness to the goodness of the neighborhood.
And then, every day when I take my walk, I pick up trash on the walk. I sort of patrol the neighborhood as I walk. There's a can here, there's broken glass there. I try to do something about it, even if I don't have the bag with me on the walk, I'll go back and pick up the broken glass.
Make your neighborhood as good as it can be to contribute to the next circle out, which is the city, the town, the city, then the state, then the nation, then the world.
Heracles had this idea. I call it my philosophical word for its contributory localism. You make a contribution to the next circle out to contribute to the next circle out to contribute to the next circle out.
And pretty soon, in these outer circles, when you're operating in these outer let's imagine you're on a neighborhood committee or you're on the town council. You need to reach back into those innermost circles with support.
The nation needs to reach back to the states and the towns and the neighborhoods with support.
The neighborhoods, the towns, the states need to contribute to the nation, which needs to contribute to the world. So basically, Heracles' idea, is this: These outermost circles, like the people in Afghanistan, the people in Vietnam, the people in wherever…they're in our outer circles. Well, guess what? We're in their outer circle.
Jill Konrath [34:37]: That's right. Yeah.
Tom Morris [34:38]: We should treat people in our outer circles as well as we can, like we treat people in our inner circles because we're somebody else's outer circle, you and me. And we're hoping that they'll treat us.
So, let's use the golden rule. Let's treat them the way we would want to be treated. And Heracles said—this is a beautiful image for how—to start where you are right now. It's no big deal, right?
Do something good in your neighborhood. Do something good for your friends, for your town, and you're starting to grow your garden. You're starting to make the world a better place.
So, in my book, The Everyday Patriot, I've got all kinds of examples of how people in my town and other towns have done little things that have had big results. They get together a bunch of folks with their friends, and they say, hey, let's do this.
And they do a joint project that none of them could have done alone, but with ten of them or twenty of them. They can get it done in their neighborhood or in their town, and we're making the world a better place.
That's what patriotism is supposed to be about. It's not supposed to be just saluting the flag or wearing a flag pen or cooking hot dogs on the 4 July. It's not about the symbols.
There are symbols of patriotism, and then there's the heart of patriotism. The heart of patriotism is what Heracles was talking about. Making your difference where you are for the good of all.
Jill Konrath [35:59]: It seems to me that I have two thoughts on that. Number one is time.
Tom Morris [36:03]: Yeah, right.
Jill Konrath [36:04]: I mean, I know that there are a lot of people who, if they look at their life, and they may have kids at home, they may have sick parents, they may be sick themselves, they're working day and night to keep their job. What do we do with people say, “I don't have the time to do any of that.”
Tom Morris [36:23]: Yeah, well, my walk is going to be what it’s every day. Right. I take one or two walks a day, and I spend a little time on trying to make the neighborhood a better place. Right.