The Dudley DoRight Syndrome:

To all my brother knights out there, do you remember, when you first felt the calling, how it felt, how you wanted to save the world, when you lost it?

I was born a Knight of the Holy Roman Empire 150 years after it was dissolved by Francis II. All of my young life was dedicated to defending those who could not defend themselves, fight after fight, loosing to none, defending all.

On February 15th, 1981 I lost the calling, on that day at 05:15Hrs the hero I never realized I had, the King of my world, my Father died, and with him my calling.

A few months later I married and over the next 8 years we had 5 children to rear, to train, and to educate in the ways of the warrior. As my first born son grew he to heard the calling and when old enough, raised to the challenge, until the day his wife betrayed him, and he too lost his calling and fell into poverty and despair.

When my marriage ended, I found myself again at the crossroads of choice, I could wallow in despair or I could get my act together and once again be the Knight I was born, I choose to once again rise from the ashes and do what I was born to do, protect and enforce. There are still times when I question the wisdom of putting myself in harms way for others who would not do the same for others, but then if they did help others then they would not have needed me.

At the end of my first marriage I met my present wife and found that she was a female me, her desire to protect was as strong as mine ever was and she to went through the trials and tribulations of doubt and despair, and came out on top.

As I have aged I have seen to many people claim to have the calling and yet know nothing of what the calling truly is, many think it is a call to war, to fight and kill those who live differently than we, or who believe differently than professed Christians. While I have aged I have also tempered my need to enforce and the physical protection I once provided has been replaced with wisdom and the knowledge that to enforce and protect need not be only by physical force, that time and understanding tempered with the knowledge that if need be the physical can still take place, for while violence is or should be the last resort it still has it place when protection is required.

To be a Knight in today’s society one must also be a negotiator and social psychologist in order to understand that our way is not the only way to live, but one must also know that those who will not listen must be convinced that violence only hurts those they are trying to protect, and whether they choose to listen by negotiations or by violence they must be taught that we must all live together as individual societies and cultures, without the violence that has been the way since the beginning of time.