PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

In an article in the Washington Post, Matt Potter, an expert on resignation letters, got it just right when he opined on the letter written by U.S. Department of Defense director Jim Mattis.

“The artful resignation,” Potter wrote, “has more to say than just goodbye — it can start a trend.”

The plot thickened over the weekend as President Donald Trump, irritated over the positive publicity Mattis got as he resigned, told him that he, Mattis, would leave earlier than planned – be gone as of January 1, 2019.

Trump’s new chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told ABC’s “This Week” that the president and his defense chief “just could never get on the same page” on Syria, adding that Trump had said since his presidential campaign that “he wanted to get out of Syria.”

Asked whether Trump wanted a Pentagon leader willing to challenge him or someone in lock step with his views, Mulvaney said “a little bit of both.”

“I’ve encouraged him to find people who have some overlap with him but don’t see the world in lockstep with him,” Mulvaney said.

Back to Potter, the resignation letter expert, who says Mattis’ letter starts ominously, “with a frosty disregard for White House form.”

Other letters, including one from H.R. McMaster as he resigned his post as national security adviser, had been “thankful to Trump for the opportunity to serve him and our nation.” Former attorney general Jeff Sessions, unceremoniously asked to resign, had managed this response: “Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. President.”

But in Mattis’ letter, there’s a gaping hole where the addressee, Trump — who lives for public flattery — should be.

“I have been privileged to serve as our country’s 26th Secretary of Defense,” Mattis wrote, “which has allowed me to serve alongside our men and women of the Department in defense of our citizens and our ideals.” His words conspicuously avoided any expression of delight, honor or gratitude toward the president.

There’s more from Mattis, which goes to the heart of his reasons for resigning.

“My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.”

No one saw the letter as anything but a stinging protest over various Trump actions, including on matters of the military without, apparently, even asking for Mattis’ input.

That included Trump’s appointment of a new military Chief of Staff (not Mattis’ proposed pick), Trump’s unilateral decision to leave Syria where ISIS still remains alive and fighting, and a number of Trump decisions to turn his back on long-standing international alliances, including those that could oppose Russian and Chinese initiatives.

Potter says Mattis’ “Dear Boss” letter sits squarely in a military tradition that letters do not have to cater to a chief executive’s craving for adulation.

Potter continues: “It is a reckoning and a duty, at whatever cost. It may have been a surprise to us and, one must imagine, to Trump — no secretary of defense had ever resigned in protest. But it was not a surprise to Mattis. Most striking throughout his letter is the avoidance of even the most boilerplate terms of esteem or loyalty toward the president. With Trump’s craving for personal fealty from former employees — something of a lifelong obsession (and a sore spot right now, as he fumes on Twitter about his former lawyer Michael Cohen turning “rat”) — Mattis’ choice of words, and silences, would seem to represent some of the subtlest and most carefully pointed trolling imaginable.”

Mattis letter also appears designed to show Trump, pointedly, how leadership should be done and what dignity and discretion look like.

Mattis’ mature move – get out of the way for Trump when he, Mattis, disagrees with the president too often – could have two effects. One is that it could enable Trump to do more of what he always does without restraint, which is to move unpredictability through the thicket of international relations, thus risking America’s security.

Or, the resignation could prompt serious reflections on Trump’s management of the presidency, something he knows little about except when he emotes on Twitter, his favorite mode of communication in a world that deserves more.

Only time will tell. And a foreboding thought is that there are at least two more years of the Trump in the Oval Office.