Chris Bent

I guess it was for...no...six, eight years ago, I started to think about my kids, and did they really know me. 'Cause kids really don't know parents. They think, they think they do, but they don't. It's only when you get older do you understand a little more about life. Well, now that I'm 74, I want to make sure that there's a record of who I was. Not just a stupid, conventional eulogy; there has to be more there. So in a way, this book started...I started to write letters to them.

Some of them became letters to the editor of the local paper, some of which were printed. And because they were going...possibly, in the paper, they had to be limited in length, which means 200, 300, 400 words. And we're all used to writing thingsat 700, 800, 1,000 words I guess. I mean we just think when you write something it has to be long, or chapters in books are long.

But there was something about writing it short, forced by the newspaper that added a new dimension. I'd come up with a subject, a silly subject...it could be "beer belly"...and it just comes to me out of nowhere, and I'll throw the title down and I'll just start writing. And it flows. I don't know where it comes from, but it comes from somewhere. There's always humor, and there's always wit, and it's always short, and it finishes, hopefully, with a strong message.

In the course of writing it became value driven, meaning as we all know today...getting values, planting values in kids is really difficult, and it's hard for parents, especially with the whole social network...networking cancer that's eroding the family structure.

So a lot of what I write is geared to those of us who are concerned, but a lot of what I write, because of my SEAL background, can reach the hearts of kids. I can...I become an authority of good. And that's what my mission is, to reach them.

You'll find that there're no real allusions to religion, or to God in it, but we're talking about core values. And if I can get one kid to stop and think about doing things the right way, and the unselfish way, and get them into the joy of helping others then I've accomplished what I'm setting out to do.

But it all happens really spontaneously. I mean, if you saw the list of titles I've yet to write, you'd laugh. My new book is going to be called 1-800-For-Women-Only. And why? I don't know. It's like...why not? So titles that I'm working on, or have already done are "Skirt Sense," "Pay Scale," "His Mother," "Marry me,' "Divorce Me," "Nail Salon," "Old Woman," "Just A Minute Honey," etcetera, "Is There A cell Phone Signal," "Monday Night Football." Well, who would ever think that these would be valid topics for anything substantive or serious? But I'm dead serious, but as the writing starts, it just starts, and it's over in 300 words.

Actually, when it's over 300 words or so you start repeating yourself, and you're boring the reader. My books, 1-800-I-AM-UNHAPPY, series Volume 1 and Volume 2 ...you can go into that at any page, any chapter, and just grab a little vignette, and you don't have to feel like you've gotta read the book. And every one of them has a message. So I'm excited about it. I'm pretty sure it's unique, but I don't know, but I'm just doin' it.

Rather personal...the book can almost be summed up in the very first chapter. You know I've written over 200 chapters we've divided up into a couple of books and some of them will be in the new one, in the For Women Only book. And as I was going through, there was one chapter that kept popping out. And it wasn't the first one I ever wrote. The first one I ever wrote was about the poor having no faces.

This is called "The Grenade" and back in the...2006 in Ramadi, September 29th, Mike Monsoor was a Navy SEAL. Mike won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Mike is dead. He, fellow SEALS and Iraqi soldiers they were working with were on a rooftop in Ramadi. A live grenade appeared. All would be killed or injured. Mike reached deep inside where truth lives and dove on the grenade. His defining choice. God bless you Mike. Teammates were saved. They hammered their tridents onto his coffin.

And then I go on to say, you know we all have these opportunities in life to make a decision, and maybe throw ourselves on a metaphoric grenade. When you see an injustice, or something that is not right, do you have the courage to say no, that's not right...not, no Dad I don't want to do that, we're not talking about that. When you see an injustice, when young kids see an injustice, they have a sense for what is right and wrong. Our job is to get them back into that zone where they're being driven by their heart and their own pure sense of right and wrong, good and evil.

So when you see anything that is not right, or anything that is evil, do you have a responsibility to look the other way, to yak about it, or to do something about it? And I say you do something about it. You do what Mike did. And that makes you a man. And that makes your life meaningful, and it makes you important to others. So it gets down to serving others. Listening, and looking, and seeing where you can make a difference; 'cause you only make a difference when you do something for someone else; not for yourself.

So you can become a Navy SEAL in your own way by stopping evil. By being...maybe a warrior of the insignificant. Find moments that...they're yours. And think about the times you say no and you look the other way, or you turn it into a discussion rather than an action. I say just do it, and don't worry about the feelings of others. Do what is right. And if it hurts them, too bad. Just do what is right. God bless you.