The Warrior Ethos . . . rests on the will and resolve [of Spartans] to defend their children, their home soil and the values of their culture.
—Steven Pressfield
If you don’t know the story of the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae, here’s what happened: The ancient Greek king Leonidas led some seven thousand men, three hundred of whom were Spartan warriors, into a battle against the invading army of Xerxes the Great and more than three hundred thousand Persian soldiers. The Spartans held the front line for two days, but on the third, they were finally overrun. Leonidas ordered the three hundred Spartans to remain and fight, sacrificing himself and his men to allow Greece to live and fight another day.
How did Leonidas choose the three hundred warriors he would lead out to the Hot Gates to battle an overwhelming enemy? They were all “fathers of living sons,” according to Plutarch. You might think it would have been the opposite, that parents would be allowed to sit out a potential suicide mission —but that’s not how it worked in Sparta. These warriors were chosen because parents would never want to let their kids down. These fathers would fight most bravely, most fiercely, not only to protect what they had back at home but to protect the reputations of their family names, which might be all their children had left if they were to fall in battle. To abandon their comrades or behave in a cowardly way would be to risk great shame and the possibility of letting down the family that so looked up to them.
Our kids are whom we should want to impress. They’re the ones we should never want to let down. They’re not only the ones we’re fighting for
but also the ones whose standards—whose natural admiration and love—we should always be fighting to live up to.