Blog 462 – 11.11.2016

A line from the code I live by says, “I practice love in action. I serve others.”
Last weekend I saw the movie Hacksaw Ridge. I highly recommend it to all for two reasons: First because it graphically portrays the horrors of war, but more importantly because it shows the even greater power of love and service.

Today is the day we set aside to honor those who served in our military throughout the history of the United States. We pick this day, November 11th, because it was originally called Armistice Day. On the eleventh hour of eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1919 the Great War to end all wars was concluded. The peace was signed and the most horrific war up till that time was ended, a war so terrible it was call a World War. The men and women who served in that war hoped it would be the last war.

The story in the movie Hacksaw Ridge takes place in World War II on Okinawa just a few months before that war too ended. Matthew Brady, the famous photographer of the American Civil War battlefields hoped his pictures of the ravages of war would bring an end to war. I am told that Gatlin the inventor of the first machine gun toward the end of the Civil War hoped his invention was so terrible that it would preclude sensible men from taking up arms against one another ever again.  The inventor of TNT, Nobel, set up the Nobel Peace Prize from the vast profits his invention had made during wartime to award those who worked to end wars. For a moment after the first two terrible atomic bombs were dropped many hoped an act so horrendous surely would signal the end to all wars.

There is but one weapon strong enough to end all wars and that weapon is love. Till we learn the non-violent means of conflict resolution we will be trapped in this circle of hate, hurt, and retribution called war. The young man at the center of the story. about Hacksaw Ridge decided as a young man to never again pick up a weapon against his brother. I won’t spoil the story for you by revealing more of the story. I will just give a big salute to all who have served, combatants and noncombatants to put an end to tyranny and bloodshed in the world and to those who are still serving hoping each battle they fight will be the last and that one day lasting peace will come. May that day come quickly and all of us celebrate Armistice Day, laying down arms of warfare day, forever more.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White