Carpe Kevlar...

[Baldricks-Bullet]

Carpe Kevlar is not "Keep your head down"

Nice to see our moto being engraved on more and more bullets… Cheers… glad you like it… But yesterday (for the first time) I was asked what it really meant. Well… seize the Kevlar or grab the bodyarmour… a rip off of dead Poets society Carpe Dium..

Ah, but no… the bugger wanted to know what it meant to me… so here it is and this is just my personal interpretation, case closed, it can mean whatever you like to you. It’s a sign-off like “Keep your head down” which is a horrible civie phrase (that even I use when I’m not thinking)… lets face it a soldier is a soldier!  not a mouse hiding in a bunker… he can’t and shouldn't. If a boxer keeps his head down he gets panned in. SO Carpe Kevlar means “look after yourself”, “fight but fight smart” “Be safe” “Don’t be lazy*” “have a safe tour” all rolled into one. So it’s like “keep your head down” but without inferring that you should be a wooser.

(* bit of personal one – I used to have the choice of armouring up and it could kill you just as easily as it could save you – so it reminded me to think smart rather than fall into being lazy)

It can of course have any meaning you have for it personally, but as I say… case closed.

 

[FredDaHead]

First, it's "Carpe Diem" not "Dium."

Second, it didn't originate from that weird (but oh-so-good) Robin Williams movie; it's from a poem by Horace, who wrote it while Jesus' dad was still a long-haired punk rebelling against his own dad.

Just had to point that out...

As for what it means. I don't really care, honestly. I'm more curious as to why people love deforming timeless quotes and think they mean something when, literally, they mean nothing. ("Seize the kevlar"?) If we're gonna corrupt latin sayings, why not "Si vis pacem, carpe kevlar" or something to that effect? Ok, so you can't tell someone that when they're heading out. Anyway.