I hope that you got back in one piece, fellow

PJ O'Rourke wrote a fucking shit-tonne of words in his career and I read a lot of them when I was young and impressionable and slight enamored with that kind of arrogant nonsense, but the ones that have always stuck with me the most were the ones in his dedication at the start of Give War A Chance

Most of his work was devoted to the cult of Me, but his dedication in that book went out to the poor fucker who had to go to Vietnam instead of him, when he avoided any service with a cocktail of long-term drug use and the actions of your regular young sociopath .

That dedication was the most self-reflective thing he ever did, and the only time he really expressed regret for his youthful stupidity, and sympathy for the dude out there who had to take his place. We don't always think about the people we never met who might have their lives turned upside down by a decision we made, but if you're very lucky, you might get to dedicate a book to them.