I wasn't planning any reflections on Veteran's Day...not that anyone would expect one from me, someone who has never served in the military, and has few friends who have. I guess I am inspired out of the blue, recalling having read just over a year ago the anti-war classic All's Quiet on the Western Front. The work is an intense account of one soldier's experience on the front lines during WWI, on the losing side. The author details the relentless brutality of war, as one is changed through the experience, to endure, endure, endure...against all odds, with little that might be called "hope". The life of the soldier during that war consisted entirely of fighting and surviving. Moments of quiet were celebrated, and transition to chaos was as natural as the rising of the new sun.
I found myself, in reading the book, relating in many ways to the soldier. Both of our experiences are terribly lonely -- just as one who has not struggled with cancer cannot understand my struggles, nor can I (or anyone else) understand the struggles of those facing the horrors of war. The discovery of perseverance -- the ability to endure such horrors, which, had we been presented them prior to our experiences, we surely would have rejected the notion that we could so endure.
Many endure terrible suffering, but the intensity of the suffering of war or cancer...the relentlessness of our opponent...goes beyond what is considered "normal" suffering. It cannot help but change us...but in what ways? Does it make us better human beings? I believe (and have mentioned this elsewhere) that we can choose to answer in the affirmative.
To all those who have endured the horrors of war, I salute you. My prayers are with you, and I thank you for yours.
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3 comments:
"Many endure terrible suffering, but the intensity of the suffering of war or cancer...the relentlessness of our opponent...goes beyond what is considered "normal" suffering. It cannot help but change us...but in what ways?"
If the relentlessness of your opponent goes beyond what is normal then do you not have the choice to do the same? A person is not their disease, not their past experiences and they are definitely not the actions of other people. A person is who they are, at their core, and no one and nothing can ever change that without that person's consent.
My best friend has MS and one of the most valuable lessons she's taught me is that we all have the choice to either let situations that are out of our control dictate who we are and how much we enjoy our lives, or to refuse to let go of that core being all of us have inside us.
Refuse to let anything change you. If you are a good and happy and optimistic person and you want to remain stay that way, do it.
It really is that simple.
Hi blayne...and thanks for checking out my blog!
I suppose there are a couple of ways to look at things, and that your friend and I probably are not too far apart in the way we actually think. When I say that we cannot help but be changed, I mean this: whenever we face adversity, we are faced with a challenge to who we are. How we face that challenge changes us -- we either rise to meet the challenge, and thus grow as a human being, or we succumb to the challenge, and become something less.
My desire to face my challenges with courage, with perseverance, without changing my love of life or of my loved ones...I can hope and pray that does not change. I *choose* that it does not change -- and as a result, *I* change, by growth.
I realize I am not defined by my disease, as before cancer I was not defined by my career, or by anything that happens to me. But what happens to me is part of what shapes me as a human being, and how I face what happens to me *does* define who I am. And I, I hope, am constantly changing -- I hope to be continuously growing and bettering myself as a human being.
What a phenomenal post.
Thank you Dennis.
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