Courage

So after two years away from the restaurant biz, I’ve acquiesced to my significant (and climbing) debt and decided to get a part-time job as a server at Carrabba’s Italian Restaurant. And still, to this day, being a civilian and working as one is just plain weird and frustrating.

We had our orientation the other day, a mandatory occasion in corporate settings that was predictably tedious and dumb: the big money-making machine talking via their managers about how “authentic” they are and how many “values” they have.

Courage was one of those values. Yes, courage. The same tenet of my Marine Corps experience as reinforced and drilled into my brain for an entire six years as the Marine Corps motto: “Honor, Courage, Commitment!”  And I was almost enraged that Carrabba’s would dare use that term in their business culture.

Courage in the Marines is having the wherewithal to run through hails of fire to pick up your wounded comrade. It’s holding your position as ordered even though a superiorly-numbered enemy attacks you. It’s removing your sense of self and leaping on a grenade to save other Marine’s lives.

Courage at Carrabba’s is making sure you take time to do things the right way: using a jigger to measure alcoholic drinks properly; making sure you upsell a customer to enhance your Per Person Average; showing up to work on time in a not-too-disheveled uniform.

I hate that they would use that term. It cheapens the sacrifice of my fallen friends.

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