I run this image each year at TMV, for instead of describing military war service from the outside, this iconic photo describes something most have few words for. As in Corinthians… ‘but the greatest of these… prophesying, speaking with the angels, even the power to move mountains, to say Mountain, move! and the Mountain moves… nonetheless of all of those powerful powers, the greatest power of all, is Love.’
There are forms of Love that, no matter what else one has experienced in war, can still rise as a cry from the Soul, that one who at center, who carries the inextinguishable fire within, that fire of regard for humanity, granted by way of one’s birth into humanity.
There is a reason old vets often weep at parades and reunions. It isnt often nostalgia. The source of tears, no matter the topic, often comes from the deepest love known, one set in at birth and still living, despite all battle scars, despite all ill turns of fate, despite all horror or hatred, despite all else: the fire of pure love for humanity–
and even at lowest point, that uncorrupted love still burns… and tears can come because one hopes, sometimes unconsciously, sometimes consciously, that the outer world would someday better match the uncorrupted world one still carries within. Tears often flow from comparing inner and outer worlds, and knowing the difference between the two yet.
In all honor, this day, and all days, to veterans who have been to war and are in war zones now, those who have come home, those who did not make it home again, those who indeed are yet to come home safe and sound, and we pray, very soon.