Pat Tillman RIP

We are affected by the deaths of heroes not because we know them, but because we know ourselves. Millions who never knew Pat Tillman, what he wore or drank or drove, will want to believe they could not as he did, walk away from a small fortune to face pain and death to defend his home and country. Yet that is not the truth. A hero in the shroud of mortality reminds us that we are separated only by our capacity to dare.

Too many have lived as we have lived
for our lives to be worth the living.
Too many have died as we will die
for our deaths to be worth the dying.
-- Dashiell Hammett (from memory. I cannot find the source.)