Could the same be said?

In his final film, The Shootist, an ailing John Wayne played likewise-dying gunfighter John Bernard "J.B." Books. Crystallizing the character, who sought to balance his unshakable dignity with the pain brought on by the end of his life, is a line spoken to young admirer Gillom Rogers (Ron Howard):

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do those things to other people and I require the same from them."

Over on KnifeForums the other day, the subject turned to Bowie knives, detouring briefly into a discussion of Jim Bowie himself -- "badass," "coffin-filler" and so on. The man, by all accounts, was every bit of that and then some.

Of particular interest to me was a post quoting Elve Bowie, mother of Jim, who reportedly said this on hearing of her son's death at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836:

"I'll wager no wounds were found in his back."

Putting aside hero-worship, the words spoken by the fictional Books and of the legendary Bowie capture an essence of fierce, principled independence. Each of us should aspire to the same.