I don’t like to think about war and the destruction that is naturally associated with it but I’m forcing myself to do so today because so many people lived1 it for the sake of the future – for us. Our generation often waxes poetic about how generations of the past didn’t know any better2 but they sure had more faith that we do.
I can only begin to imagine what they went through3 and what I imagine is intense and so powerful… and I can’t help but think that it must have been that much more so.
We don’t know what it feels like to be constantly on edge fearing for your life and yet having to find some meaning in your existence; something to find joy in. While I think war is wasteful and absolutely fucking stupid, I am in awe of the people who went to war for what they believed in. Being around that much death, being the one to execute someone’s life changes a person.
I could have complaints about my life but it’s people like those who fought in war4 that drive me to force myself to suck. it. up. I’m only human and will let complaints slip out every now and then but I know how blessed of a life I have led and continue to lead. So today, I am going to mourn the people I’ll never get to meet because they died fighting for our freedom; the people who survived their friends and come back broken; the people who didn’t go to war but had to attempt to continue to live their lives while their most-beloved is out fighting for their lives (and are no doubt equally broken).
I wasn’t living in this part of the world when it all happened5 and I have been lucky enough that my life hasn’t been directly touched by any subsequent wars/battles but I am enjoying the benefits of their sacrifices and I’ll be damned if I take any of it for granted.
- I am aware some still do, I think about them too [↩]
- take the current environmental issues we’re dealing with for example [↩]
- yes, I know I can read about it too but even only that limits my experience to the spread of my own imagination [↩]
- and those who are still living in war now [↩]
- I wasn’t living at all when any of it happened [↩]
