NOV 13, 2012 PROGRAM:
Living with Purpose, Dying with Dignity
Posted by Sherry Howe
on Nov 13, 2012
In the midst of a meteoric U.S. Army career, Lt. Col. Mark Weber was tapped by General David Petraeus for a high profile job within the Afghan Parliament as a military advisor, a task he had performed with remarkable distinction in Iraq. But, a routine deployment physical revealed Stage IV intestinal cancer in the 38-year-old father of three.
Over the next two years he waged a desperate battle with the cancer he dubbed Buford. With his wife and boys as his reluctant but willing fighting force, Mark defied medical predictions of his imminent demise, but when he realized that he was not going to survive this final tour of combat, he began to write a letter to his boys, so that as they grew up without him, they would know what his life-and-death story had taught him—about courage and fear, challenge and comfort, words and actions, pride and humility, seriousness and humor, and a never-ending search for new ideas and inspiration.
“Tell My Sons” is that letter. And it's not just for his sons; it is profound observations and solid advice for everyone who could use the last best words a dying hero has to offer.
Mark’s letter and his stories illustrate that the greatest value of a life is to spend it for something that lives on. Stories that bear testimony to the fact that in the end you become what you are through the causes to which you attach yourself. Through his example, he teaches how to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary way.
“Tell My Sons” is that letter. And it's not just for his sons; it is profound observations and solid advice for everyone who could use the last best words a dying hero has to offer.
Mark’s letter and his stories illustrate that the greatest value of a life is to spend it for something that lives on. Stories that bear testimony to the fact that in the end you become what you are through the causes to which you attach yourself. Through his example, he teaches how to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary way.