 Good morning. Good morning, everyone. I hope you enjoyed yourselves last night. Newport is a beautiful town. There's no end to places to explore, and unfortunately, the weather held out, so I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Tonight, we'll have another event at Gurney's, which I'm looking forward to myself. I'm going to go through a few admin remarks before we turn over the floor to our first speaker. Most of you know, if you want to use translation, you've got to pick up your interpretive headset. There's folks standing behind the back. The headsets are all cleaned up, and the earbuds have been changed out. If you have any problems, just raise your hand, and someone will bring you a handset. For our folks who are listening virtually, again, don't forget to hit your interpretive set and pick the language of your choice, and make sure to sync your mic so you don't get the bleed over audio. Our schedule events today is on change from your program. Remember, when the morning forms, one is in Pringle, one is Spruance, and that involves a little travel. It is your choice to which one you've got to go to, and frankly, they all look so good. It's hard to pick one over another, but think about it over the course of the morning and afternoon. So, folks for PCR testing, if you are planning on leaving on Saturday, you need to take your PCR test today, this morning, and if you go down to the command center, it will take you down to the garage and get you a PCR test if you haven't gotten one yet. If you already took one, your results for the delegates are available at the information booth and at Gurney's by the front desk. And for the non-delegates, it will be in the command center here. So, don't forget to pick up your test results if you've already taken it and you're leaving sooner or you're going to need to take it before you leave. And we'll be happy to help you along the way. So, of course, to the last day, we talked quite a bit about COVID, its impact on ships and ship readiness, but remarks that kept coming to the surface were the impact on mental health and also spiritual health. And we're lucky to have the commander of the Navy Chaplain School here in Newport, Captain Cary Cash, who is going to talk about that very same subject so we can give a professional perspective on that issue. So, Captain Chaps, if you want to come up and address the crowd, thank you. Good morning. Well, thank you for the privilege and the honor today to speak to such an esteemed and experienced group of naval leaders, and I understand many spouses. My name is Chaplain Cary Cash. I'm privileged to be the director of the Navy Chaplain School and Center here in Newport, Rhode Island, where our mission is to train, develop, and inspire chaplains to pursue excellence as they strengthen the soul of the warfighter, the family, and the fleet. I am not a warfighter, at least not in the physical sense, but I do hold great respect and admiration for those who bear this responsibility and those spouses and families who support them. I'm also mindful of the great friendships among nations that are represented in this auditorium, and as friends, often do share strength and courage with each other. I hope to share some thoughts that may be an encouragement to each of you today. But first, an illustration. My oldest daughter is 23 years old. Her name is Phoebe. When she was four years old, our family was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California, where I was a chaplain with Marines. One day, as I was working in the kitchen, I was suddenly alarmed by the sound of my daughter, Phoebe's voice, screaming in the backyard. Now, those of you who are parents, we quickly learned to discern the screams of our children, whether it is genuinely a sound of distress or a sound that says, I want attention. This was clearly distress, so I stopped what I was doing. I ran outside the back door, and just as I crossed the threshold of my back patio, I had to stop and laugh. There's a tree in our backyard, and my little girl, Phoebe, there she was, holding on a branch in her mind for dear life, her legs swinging back and forth. What she did not know, and what I could see clearly, is that she was only two inches from the ground. And so I said, as any dad would, I said, Phoebe, honey, if you will trust Daddy and stretch out your toes, you will feel solid ground underneath you. And she thought about it for a minute, she finally trusted me, she stretched her feet out, and as soon as she felt that solid ground, down she dropped, and off she ran to play. I turned around and had a threshold moment in my own life as an adult. A realization came to me in that minute, how life is so much like this for all of us. We're in a situation where we feel like we are just barely hanging on, but if we'll just stretch out, reach out, we will find that there is a firm foundation underneath us. There is solid ground. Now in my faith tradition, that's the love of God and the promise that underneath us are the everlasting arms. Perhaps this foundation is different for you, but we can all agree that foundations are important, can we not? A foundation is something that is firm, reliable, trustworthy, in a sense it is immovable. It's something that is laid at the very bedrock of our lives, without which we cannot build anything of any structural integrity. Which is to say a foundation is something that you and I can stand upon and anchor ourselves to, to remain trustworthy ourselves and capable of doing our duty. I want to take a few minutes this morning and speak with you about the importance of foundations in the leader's life, in particular marriage, mental health and spirituality. Now obviously you have built foundations of one kind or another, or you would not be here. I recognize the commitment and the sacrifices that you have all demonstrated over the years, both you and your spouses. But it is equally true that with the passing of time and the acceptance of greater responsibilities, these foundations can suffer neglect or go unattended. With greater demands placed upon us, there is a greater capacity to let what is most important fall into disrepair. And when this happens, the results can be disastrous for us, for our families, and for the people and the institutions that we lead. I think of the story of Naaman, the military general from ancient times. You might know the story of Naaman. Naaman was an extraordinary leader, one whom his soldiers sought to emulate in every way. Naaman, like so many of you, could boast of many achievements, accomplishments, innovations, perhaps even victories in battle. He would be one also like many of you, with decorations and accolades worn upon his chest, demonstrating his experience and his stature as a military leader. So by every societal and institutional measurement, Naaman, as we say in the United States, Naaman had arrived and lived a kind of desirable life. But for all of his outward success, Naaman had a secret of which very few were aware. Underneath his armor, Naaman was dying of leprosy. He was a leper. And so while his armor was shiny and impeccable, while his standing in the eyes of those he led was secure inwardly, a corrosive disease was eating him away. This is a metaphor for the dangers inherent in senior leadership. As we gain greater responsibilities, as we master executive skills that we've demonstrated here, as we master the management of people and processes, strategies and systems, we can become masters of neglect and allow our personal lives, our deeper foundations to suffer erosion and waste away. Now thankfully the story of Naaman has a happy ending. I will let you read that for yourselves if you want to. It's in the Jewish scriptures or the Old Testament in the book of 2 Kings. But the verdict has yet to be given for each of us. By our decisions each day, we are either building foundations or we are neglecting them. A failure that sooner or later will become evident to all. For what a man or woman does in secret will one day be proclaimed from the rooftops. Which is why the writer of the Proverbs says, Watch your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life. So marriage, mental health and spirituality. Three foundations in the life of the leader and how you and I can strengthen them. And I'm aware that several of you, many of you may not be married, but this is excellent information because you lead those who are. So marriage, let's begin with a lesson in contrast. In the United States for a person to obtain a driver's license, there are several important requirements probably similar to the nation from which you come. There's a written test. There is an eye exam. There is a road test. There's a period of waiting where that young driver needs to show competency driving with an adult. There is a background check for any kind of criminal record or disqualifying condition. And the reason we have these requirements is that driving as we know it is dangerous. And the state wants to ensure that drivers are adequately prepared for the challenges of driving on the open road. A marriage license, on the other hand, can be obtained for a small fee and a matter of minutes. And yet, as someone has said, marriage is far more dangerous than driving. Marriage is difficult. We need to just say that. And perhaps it is even dangerous. Even healthy marriages suffer seasons of great difficulty and trial. And this is doubly true for those who are in the military. And I would even add for those in positions of great leadership. What we know about marriage in the United States, and I think this is similar in other countries, is that the single greatest determiner for whether a marriage will survive or end in divorce is how the spouses handle conflict, how they argue, how they fight, they fight fair. This is the assessment of about 35 years of marital research in our country by psychologists and behavioral health experts who have studied marriages that do well and those that do not. A particular note is the work of psychologist Dr. John Gottman who has led research in the United States since the 1990s. Gottman began at the University of Washington where he studied several thousand couples over the course of many years. And his method was simple. He watched how they argued. He watched their body language, their tone, their verbals and nonverbals, the rolling of their eyes, the way they interpreted their own history, the way they interpreted and spoke about their immediate past, how they responded to their spouse's complaints. And after a few years of watching couples argue, Gottman was able to put his finger on four destructive patterns that are almost always present when a marriage is eroding or moving towards divorce. And he became famous in the United States because he could watch a couple argue and in a matter of minutes predict with 94% accuracy which marriages would survive or which would not. Because of this the Gottman Institute was built on the West Coast. The remarkable thing about his research is that at the same time he was identifying these four destructive patterns, other researches around the world were doing the very same thing and they were coming to the very same conclusions. Now they may have given these patterns different names but they were essentially the four same patterns or warning signs. Let me mention them for you. Criticism, defensiveness, contempt and withdrawal. By the way these are some of the same things we see on toxic staffs in the military. Criticism, defense, contempt and withdrawal. Gottman humorously jokingly called them the four horsemen of marital distress. Four horsemen is a reference to a biblical end of time event. Namely when you see the four horsemen appear you know the end of the world is near. And Gottman would say that when you see these four horsemen or patterns stampeding through a marriage the end is probably near. Let me say a brief word about each. First criticism. The attacking of your spouse's character or personality rather than a specific behavior. Now we know that there is certainly a time for criticism and constructive feedback especially on our naval staffs but that's not what Gottman was talking about. He's talking about a way of communicating where we make the complaint personal, accusatory rather than focus on a specific issue or behavior. For example, and I'll be candid about our issue. I have big feet. I have a size 14 shoe in the United States. I think by European standards that's about a 48.5. Large feet, 13.5 in the UK. Early in our marriage I tended to leave my shoes laying around the house which presented a hazard for my wife and children. My wife would sometimes say Carrie when you leave your shoes lying around the house it makes me feel like you don't care about the home. Or she could be critical and make it personal. You lazy unthinking man pick up your shoes in which case I am likely to miss the complaint and get defensive. So the point here is that a marriage which communicates through personal attack even over something like shoes is going down a troubling road. The second warning sign is defensiveness. This is defending your position rather than listening to the deeper concern being raised by your spouse. You know you're doing this if you find yourself in the middle of an argument and you're thinking ahead about how you're going to answer or defend your point rather than hearing the issue. If you're doing this you're likely falling into the second pattern defensiveness. And a marriage that falls into this for long will descend into argument and counter argument back and forth day and night. The third destructive pattern and by the way these become worse and worse as we go contempt. Contempt is rehearsing and repeating to yourself what you don't like about your spouse fixating on it. And this is particularly hard because this often comes out of legitimate hurt and real frustration. I remember counseling a sailor and his wife years ago after he had come out that he had been unfaithful to her in fidelity. And of course she was completely distraught deeply hurt angry and ready to leave him. And yet I remember there was a part of her a small part that wanted to try and save the marriage. They had a young daughter and she was looking for a way to try and forgive him. The problem was his attitude. I remember him sitting in my office saying to me look I said I'm sorry can't she just get over this and move on. She had understandable contempt for him. A few months later he and I were in a combat environment where we saw some significant losses. And I'll never forget him coming to me one day after a religious service. And I could see he was crying because the tears were mixing with the mud on his face. And he walked up and he said Chaplin I finally today realize what I did to my wife. I remember thinking I think your marriage may finally have a chance now. So contempt is hard and there are no simple or easy solutions. I would say if you're wrestling with this reach out and get another perspective. Ask yourself if there is anything that you have done that could be contributing to the issue. And finally explore if you are able forgiveness. The final warning sign that Gottman presented us with is withdrawal or what we would call the silent treatment. All right where spouses stop talking all together or avoid each other for long periods of time. This is the idea that I am done with you like trains or ships passing in the night. So criticism defensiveness contempt withdrawal. Now to be fair the research shows that every marriage does experience these patterns from time to time. It is part of life. It is part of making a life together. The danger is not that you or I occasionally experience these. But rather when these patterns are the daily reality for your marriage. When the basic vocabulary in the marriage is critical defensive filled with contempt and silence. An occasional horseman says Dr. Gottman is to be expected. But when the four horsemen are stampeding through the relationship every day the end is probably near. Years ago I took my wife and children to a restaurant in Southern California. The restaurant promised free dinners on Tuesday nights for all children under 12. At the time I had five children so they never liked when the cash family arrived. But I remember sitting there and I noticed an elderly couple probably in their 70s or 80s walk in. To eat. What struck me is that he walked in about 15 feet in front of her. And then she came in and sat down. They sat down they looked in opposite directions the entire meal they never spoke a word. The meal concluded he paid the bill he got up without waiting for her. And a minute later she got up. And I thought to myself I I don't know what has happened but I don't want to end up like that. Now I don't know what was going on maybe they were having a hard day or they'd experience hard news but I do know this. There are many spouses that get to the winter of their lives those later years and the marriage is very much like this. It is empty and it is lifeless. And when this is the case it is likely because the two did not deal with conflict well and they let those patterns become a way of life. They did not strengthen this foundation. It is crucial for us to consider this and yes even at an international seapower symposium right. You are here I know to consider some very big issues. Maritime challenges facing our world international security coalition military operations these issues I am aware they demand your focus and countless hours of time and energy and travel. And yet in the middle of these tremendous responsibilities don't neglect your marriage for one a crumbling foundation at home will impact your judgment on the job. You and I can only compartmentalize our lives for so long before there's real harm. I've seen this up close and personal a marriage in ruins will impact your judgment and the staff and the people you lead. Beyond this and more importantly one day you and I all of us will take this uniform off and we hope to have something of enduring value to show beyond our naval service. When men and women are dying later in life they don't ask for their ribbons or their medals at their bedside no they ask for their loved ones their life partners. If you're married your spouse is your life partner in our Navy we call that a shipmate. Build and strengthen this foundation even in the high place of leadership in which you sit. The second foundation I want to discuss is mental health and by mental health I'm talking about an integrated life integration in the way we think process crises and deal with the stress and the demands of the job. Let me let you in on a little secret that you probably already know you are all masters of compartmentalization all of you. Now while studies suggest men compartmentalize more than women the bottom line is if you are a naval leader or a leader of a large organization man or woman you compartmentalize and you do it quite well. You have to know what am I talking about compartmentalization is a defense mechanism in which people mentally separate conflicting thoughts emotions or experiences. To avoid the discomfort of contradiction it is not inherently negative. We often have to put one conflict or issue aside in order to tackle another challenge. In fact we do this daily especially in the military. Psychology today says the number one occupation where we see compartmentalization is the military. This is because military life is filled with high stress events traumatic moments crisis tasks that require us to be able to move beyond the moment to touch ourselves and make decisions about other challenges. The tricky part is the more senior you are and we're all senior here the better and more creative you are at compartmentalization. By now in your career you have built compartments rooms career marriage operational commitments staff exercises sports or hobbies personal projects success children conflict unresolved issues. And at some level you have to build these compartments. While compartmentalization is a necessity it can also be our undoing our unraveling our ruin if we are not working to integrate these compartments and deal with unresolved issues senior leaders above all need to hear this. Compartmentalization is a great strength but it has a great shadow to it that can be our undoing. My first assignment was with U.S. Marines in 2003 and we deployed overseas in combat operations where we had two men killed in action at about 70 men injured almost all of which were from one rifle company. For those who don't know a rifle company in our Marine Corps is about 120 men led by a Marine Corps captain. I watched that captain brilliantly and fearlessly lead his men with great courage and resolve during those losses and both losses were to senior Marines a gunnery sergeant and a lieutenant. And like leaders do he compartmentalized he had to we were on the move every day and we did not have time to grieve or process what had happened. Toward the end of the deployment our battalion took an operational pause in in the southern Iraq where we were relatively safe and able to rest we had set up in an abandoned building and I had found a room where I could throw my belongings and make it my office. On this particular day the captain knocked on my door I opened the door and there he was six foot five 240 pound giant of a man great leader standing there in all of his gear. He says Chapman do you have a minute. I said absolutely please come in I I turned to go in the office and as the door shut and I made my way to my seat he did not move but just stood there almost at attention. Keep in mind he's lost two of his best friends and seen 70 of his men evacuated out of country. That door shut and I decided not to sit down but to stand there with him and for about two minutes he lost it and wept. He didn't say a word and neither did I and after about two minutes he dried his eyes and said thanks Chapman and out he walked to lead his Marines. You and I may or may not be in a combat situation like that captain but you are in a world of stress and crisis. At times of great trial and great pressure and like that captain you also have to compartmentalize and keep it together for the people that you lead but also like that captain from time to time. You need to be able to knock on a door with someone that you trust and deal with those issues. For him it was the grief and the sadness of losing two men but it could be a whole range of issues that you're facing stress anger loneliness a moral dilemma confusion a family issue or crisis. The challenge and why this is so important for us to speak about is that the more senior you get the fewer and fewer people there are that you can go to in moments like this. So it's even more crucial to take this step. Mental health is not just about fighting through the issues at times it is but occasionally it means opening doors and letting other people in a chaplain or a religious leader or a counselor or a friend or a spouse or a mentor someone you trust. Someone whose life is not in ruin or they will give you bad advice and someone who you're not in competition with. Now I've called this segment mental health but in reality this is about friendship is it not. Having friends in your life whom you can go to the poet Homer said two people see together what one would miss. Proverbs says as iron sharpens iron so does one man sharpen another. I want you to stop for a moment and just consider the texture of the key relationships that are in your life right now. The philosopher Aristotle may help us here in his ethics Aristotle discusses three kinds of friendships. Friendships based on utility friendships based on pleasure and friendships based on virtue friendships based on utility our relationships based on some needed function or something you get from the person it could be they serve a professional interest to you. Friendships based on pleasure or shared interest our relationships based on mutual enjoyment sports reading travel food. Maybe friends with whom you vacation but friendships based on virtue says Aristotle are of the highest form and they are rare. These are relationships based on a commitment to the other person's moral best. Someone who is willing to sincerely listen and speak truthfully with you when you need to hear it. Leaders do you have friends like this in your life. Do you have a friend like this in your life. In your life one scripture says in the abundance of counselors there is victory. The ancient Greeks would send poets like Pindar to sing songs and remind the kings and military leaders of that land that they were mortal and to remain humble voices of counsel. This is so crucial time and time again when we see leaders fail or their mental health erode. There has been a pattern of isolation from sound good truth telling friends in their lives. So this is a foundation we cannot afford to neglect. Finally spirituality some of you may have read the may have had the opportunity to read the story of US Navy Captain Steve Murphy who died of cancer in 2013. It was one of the articles in your readings Steve was a brilliant officer from the surface warfare community. He was a scholar. He was a warfighter and a ships commander of impeccable leadership. When I first met Steve he had recently served on the staff of our own chief of naval operations then Admiral Greenert. In 2011 he was diagnosed with non Hodgkins lymphoma a very aggressive form of cancer. And for two years he battled this illness. Early on his diagnosis he called me and asked if we could take a walk together on the grounds of our Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland where I was stationed. And as we walked down that beautiful way he shared with me that just a few days earlier in a moment of desperation he did something unusual even for him. He said Carrie I found a Bible. I opened it and I read the first lines my eyes fell upon. Now as chaplains we do not always recommend that it can produce some interesting results. But in any event this is what he did and he was stunned by what he saw. He had turned to the prophet Isaiah and the story all about a commanding officer who is stricken with a terminal illness. Hezekiah. In this story Hezekiah is stricken with illness and is told by the prophet to set his house in order. In other words to rearrange his life for his days are surely numbered. Hezekiah pleads with God to grant him more time. Oh God remember how I have walked before you in truth with a whole heart and have done what is good in your sight. He prays. Well something must have happened in those moments some new clarity or change of heart because God in the story does in fact give Hezekiah a few more years to set his house in order and reprioritize his life. And Hezekiah praises God for this. Well Steve who had just stumbled on this story believed with all of his heart it was meant for him. His words not mine. He did not know how much longer he had but he believed he was being given a little more time to set his house in order and focus on those things which mattered the most. As I befriended Steve over the next year and saw the way he met his trial I knew I was witnessing a remarkable man one who not only endures suffering suffering but he turns and draws from it to give strength to others. I watched him invest in his family. His wife Carrie and his daughter Maddie they were his life. I watched him reach out to others who are also going through cancer and uncertainty and to be a sort of strength to them. I watched him invest in his faith and his spirit. He spent regular times in prayer. He read his own scriptures daily. He gathered with others from his religious community. He corresponded with authors and writers who had written on faith in crisis. He encouraged others who are also going through struggles in their faith. The last time I saw Steve in his home was when I came to visit him just a couple of days before he died. And I knew as I walked in that he had just a little bit of time left. I'll never forget that scene as he laid there on that bed very emaciated and weak and yet a very clear sense of peace about him. As I sat down he pulled out a little black notebook and he handed it to me and he said Carrie I've written what I believe are the five most important truths in life. My five affirmations he called them. I want you to read them. I opened the book and here they are. Number one says this man looking down the corridor of the end of his life on this earth. Number one cultivate an authentic spirituality. Number two treasure and invest in relationships. Number three seek meaning and purpose above all. Number four slow down to appreciate the beauty all around us. And number five courage and humility in the face of adversity yields personal growth for our American audience. I like to call these Murphy's laws. He and I prayed together and just a few days later he died with the courage and conviction with which he lived and surrounded by his family. And his memorial service at the Naval Academy. I shared these five affirmations as I believe they represented a kind of North Star by which we may gain our bearings. And over the years I have shared Steve's story and his example with countless sailors and Marines and senior commanders and flag officers. And whenever I do I find the same thing. There is a desire and appetite to talk about this about what matters the most. It's as if Steve gives us permission to talk about soul and spirit. My experience has been the truth that we long to see ourselves as moral actors in this great drama of life as men and women higher than the beasts of the field with spirit and soul made for something more. This was Steve's message to us. One warfighter speaking to many others cultivate an authentic spirituality. Now by spirituality I am not nor was Steve speaking necessarily of a specific religious faith. Although most people who do claim to be spiritual belong to a specific religious tradition about 70%. But by spirituality I mean what Dr. Harold Koenig has defined from Duke University. Any way of relating to that which is perceived to be sacred or transcendent larger than ourselves. And there are several ways this can be expressed. A relationship with the divine as in prayer or scripture or reflection membership in a faith or religious community. The search for deeper larger purposes for which to live. An embrace of nature and the rhythms and the beauty of the world around us finding joy in creation. An adherence to deep and abiding and anchoring values that call forth noble and heroic action and service to others. These are always always that people have expressed themselves in their spirituality. And yet I would say at least in the West it is often these very things that are the lost piece of advice in leadership. We have a generation of leaders who will talk about mental health, physical strength, weapons proficiency, team building, organizational ability, resilience, coping. But rarely do leaders make mention of cultivating one's spirit or soul or spirituality. Captain Murphy calls us to not neglect this aspect of our lives. And he's not alone. He follows a great history of military leaders from many nations who have called forth the best from their people by reminding them of those deeper and larger loyalties and purposes. George C. Marshall, one of our own generals in World War II said the soldier's heart, the soldier's soul, the soldier's spirit are everything. And unless the soldier's soul sustains him, he cannot be relied upon and will fail himself and his commander and his country in the end. Admiral James Stockdale, whose influence has woven into this very institution, believed that the classroom formed the mind of the man, but the sanctuary or the place of worship formed his soul, both being essential to the development of character. And for those of you who appreciate science, the clinical sciences loudly agree with this assessment. In the United States, we have concluded two decades of clinical studies in psychology and mental health. And what the scientists are telling us is that those who practice spirituality in concrete ways are overwhelmingly better off. Two decades of studies from Columbia University just down the road and Duke have concluded that those who are engaged in spiritual practices to include religion are 50, this is in the United States, are 50 to 80% less likely to die by suicide. 60% less likely to suffer depression. 80% less likely to suffer addiction. 70% less likely to participate in risky behavior and less at risk for pathologies like antisocial behavior, anxiety, and defiance. You might say that which many of us know intuitively as people of faith, the clinical sciences are loudly proclaiming. The evidence is there. Dr. Lisa Miller, director of psychology at Columbia University, who is with us at our chaplain school just a couple of months ago, has for nearly three decades studied brain thickness, behaviors, function, dysfunction, capacity to serve others, resilience, and coping. And she and others have determined that religious and spiritual practices are crucial to the health and wholeness of young people. She says there is no protective factor identified by the clinical sciences that in scope or scale compares to the protective benefits of religion and spirituality against suicide in this case. What's more, evidence shows that for young adults in their 20s, the vast majority of people you lead, spiritual awareness surges at the same time as depression and other threats to well-being. These are scientifically identified moments of opportunity that are in one sense unrepeatable. If there is no one in a young adult's life to interpret this crisis, this confluence, if there is no one to acknowledge the soul or the spirit or one's sacred worth, the risk for depression and sadness and despair skyrockets. This is why David Brooks of the New York Times wrote, Ignoring spiritual development in the public square is like ignoring intellectual, physical, or social development. It is to amputate people in a fundamental way leading to more depression, alienation, and misery. So all of this to say that as you consider your foundations as a leader, do not neglect the spiritual side of life. Cultivate, as Steve told us, an authentic spirituality. Build patterns and practices and rituals into your lives that honor what you perceive to be sacred or transcendent. Many of us, I suspect, already do this. But I suspect many of us do not. If you need a place to begin, I would offer the insights of C.S. Lewis. Lewis is decidedly Christian, but his observation is one I think we all would agree with, particularly senior leaders. Lewis says this, the real problem of the spiritual life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All of your wishes and hopes, and I would add demands, all rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back, in listening to that other voice, in taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger life come flowing in, and so on, all day long. For my wife and I, that's each morning coffee, scripture, and prayer, and more coffee. But I also want to encourage you to commend spiritual values to the people that you lead. Your people, many of your people, and you know this implicitly, are people of religious faith for whom spirituality is a crucial aspect of their lives. In fact, for many of them it is why they came into the military, a sense of service to the God who calls them. It is the sign of a good leader to build on every source of strength that lay in the heart of his or her people. That is just good leadership, whether or not you are a person of faith. Now, some of you, maybe all of you, remember General James Mattis, yes, who became our Secretary of Defense a few years ago. I worked under General Mattis 20 years ago at First Marine Division. Before major combat operations, General Mattis called a meeting of all of his commanders, his warfighters, his battalion commanders, and his company commanders. And the meeting was specifically to talk about leadership in light of the great crisis we were about to walk into. Chaplains were not at the meeting, doctors were not at the meeting, psychologists were not at the meeting, only warfighters. But we all heard about that meeting because one of the principal points he made to those warfighting men and women was this. Before you go into danger, it is your responsibility as a leader to ensure your men and women have an opportunity to make their peace with God. A roundabout way of saying, ensure that chaplains and other caregivers are with your people. Whether or not you are a person of faith is irrelevant, said Mattis. Many of your Marines and sailors are, it is your responsibility to cultivate this aspect of their life and prepare them. I would just echo those words to you. As a leader, it is your job. It is my job to build on the strengths that lay in the heart of your people, not dismissing their faith or disparaging it, but ennobling it and emboldening it. For in the last analysis, leadership is not only about the mission. It is about your people and giving them every bit of strength they need to go forth in noble service to defend a cherished way of life. Your people will need this strength in the days to come where they may be in danger and find themselves between the living and the dead. But they need this strength now as they wrestle with the difficulties and stresses of daily life. You see, the truth is many of your sailors and the people you lead are just like my little girl hanging from that branch. They are barely hanging on and they need leaders who will acknowledge the foundations beneath them, not dismiss them and call forth courage to stretch out and feel that solid ground where they can stand in their most difficult hours. They need us to be leaders who ourselves have built those foundations in our lives, who don't neglect the weightier matters of life, who build our houses not on shifting sand, but on a rock. A strong marriage, virtuous friends and authentic spirituality. My faith tradition says that to build this way is to be a wise man or woman. For the rains will come, the floodwaters rise and the winds will blow, but they who build their house on a rock will never fall. God bless you all and thank you so much for your attention this morning. Thank you. Thank you very much, Chaplain. Do you want to take a few questions? Is that okay? We've got ten minutes. Only if there are some, I will either deflect them, dodge them or try my best. This is one of those subjects. Sometimes it helps to be prepared to ask questions, but I will be available if anybody has any. Thank you for that expose that you've given us just very good in terms of spirituality. I hope my name is Brigidio Alonso from Kenya. I'm the Director General of the Kenya Coast Guard Service. Perhaps I'd like to elicit your view on aspects that you've just given us of spirituality. You talked about the issue of leprosy and the shining armor. My problem is that spirituality is increasingly becoming a victim of political correctness. My question is how do we embrace the different religions as leaders at different levels to be able to make sure that we create a unity in our establishment? Thank you. Thank you. I did not see where that question came from. Okay, thank you. It's an excellent question because spirituality and religion, its cousin, have suffered political intrusion in a sense and can become very divisive. What I would say is this, and the clinical studies clearly show it. Again, what many of us know intuitively, spirituality speaks to a common experience in all of life. People of every tribe and tongue and language and culture find ways to connect to what they perceive to be sacred or transcendent. And as military leaders, as far as the conversation belongs to us, what we can do is validate that, acknowledge it and praise it in whatever form it comes. Think in many ways, the culture or society or the international dialogue may at times divide us here, but we can really take a stand and acknowledge that although that expression of spirituality may be very different, what is the same about it? It is someone who is connecting to, looking to, what they perceive to be sacred and transcendent. And this tells us something about the way that we are made, something about who we are, right? Life Magazine, which is a magazine that used to run in the United States, did an article 20 years ago, and it was called Children's Images of God. And they looked at children from all over the world and all the many different expressions as they grew up. And part of the beauty of the story is that it showed us the beautiful tapestry of the way people practiced their religious faith and their spirituality. But the takeaway was little boys and girls are intrinsically wired to believe that there is something more. Whether or not their family is practicing a particular religion, they intrinsically believe there has got to be something more. That says something about your sailors and Marines and soldiers. So I think as leaders, if we can applaud that, protect that, validate that, at least in our institution, come what the world may do, we can have healthy, fruitful, respectful admiration for each other. Thank you for your question. Well, Chaplain, I think that's it. Thank you very much. Thank you, my pleasure. I really appreciate your time here today. So we're going to take a break for about 40 minutes. We'll be back here at 10 o'clock. Now, you know, we're going to break into two groups depending on where you want to go. We have two fantastic speakers who talk about different but interesting topics. So if you would rather stay in Spruance, come back to your Spruance. If you want to go to Pringle, I'll show you the chart to Pringle Hall, which is just down where you had lunch yesterday. Take your choice and enjoy yourselves, and we'll see you at 10 o'clock. Thank you so much.