Lt. Dan Taylor from “Forrest Gump” is one of my favorite film characters. Played brilliantly by Gary Sinise, Lt. Dan serves as Forrest’s platoon leader in Vietnam. Blustery and irascible, Lt. Dan barely tolerates the simple-minded Forrest. But Forrest ends up saving Lt. Dan’s life during a gruesome battle. Lt. Dan gets parts of both legs blown off and Forrest comes to the rescue, risking his life to save his beloved leader.

Rather than thanking Forest, Lt. Dan is livid. In one powerful scene, he crawls to Forrest’s bedside and attacks him for stealing his opportunity to die a hero. “I should have died out there with my men!” Lieutenant Dan seethes. “You cheated me! I had a destiny. I was supposed to die in the field, with honor!”

Lt. Dan speaks to the powerful hold that military valor and martyrdom can have. The Roman poet Horace gave voice to Lt. Dan’s desire to be a hero: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (“Sweet and fitting it is to die for one’s country”). Horace captured the idealization of war and the glorification of warriors that propelled legions of young men into battle for centuries. (British poet Wilfred Owen used the line mordantly in his 1920 antiwar poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” which spoke to the horrors of modern warfare.)

Lt. Dan spirals into despair and depression because he can’t find a way to live an honorable life in the civilian world. Figuring out how to live a life of meaning can be a real struggle, even for those of us who haven’t suffered the kind of trauma that Lt. Dan did. As George Washington tells his martyrdom-seeking aide, Alexander Hamilton, in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical: “Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder.”

In this newsletter, I enjoy highlighting people who figure out how to live for our country, people whose lives reflect what they believe in. That’s why I write about people like Eunice Shriver, who started the special Olympics out of her backyard. And Mary McLeod Bethune, who founded a school for girls when she barely had enough money to feed herself. And Jerome Lederer, who spent his life working to make airline travel safer. These are people who lived, who found ways to make our country better.

I hope you find their stories as inspiring as I do. I would love to hear from you, “What’s Gone Right” readers, about people whom you find inspiring. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.