… for Heroes, Villains or Scallywags

Nov. 10th – 241st Marine Corps Birthday

Nov. 11th – Veteran’s Day

As taps symbolically plays for America’s war veterans, when each fades away from this mortal coil, disembodied epitaphs of reflection will release into the firmament of lives they have touched directly or abstractly.Those touched will remember us in their own way. The fullness of our being—that is to say our humanity, moral fiber, essence of spirit—transmitting through the filtering optics of their beliefs and conditioning.In the abstract, we are often objectified as symbolic stress points in the ideational tension between war and peace moralization—simplifying us into heroes, villains or scallywags. Veterans trying to make sense of the totality of their war experience, should know they are not defined by such outsider constructions. It is they who must determine

the literal truth of who they are.

War—in its literal reality of brutality, destruction, suffering, killing and carnage; interspersed with heroic sacrifice, perseverance, and improbable moments of compassion—is resistant to reductionist labels.

Who then are we, beyond the contraction of mottoes, social media hashtags, speeches, tributes, and condemnations? 

I offer the following:

All human beings are larger than the narrow limited perceptions of societal and cultural conditioning. From cradle to grave we are besieged on all sides of our self-perceptions and experiential exposure to life by “outside” views and opinions of who and what we are as human beings, as members of our family and of the greater human family collective. We are reduced, expanded, elevated or diminished accordingly. We are defined by our occupation and station in society, nation or godly grouping according to mores of religion, national identity, race, creed, ethnicity, or plain old group inclusion. We internalize these outer-germinated group core identifiers as our own and make ourselves smaller than the fullness of life/existence flowing through us.

Our mission was not who we were then or now. We were not greater or lesser in importance than any other human being or, for that matter, any other being regardless of form. Neither were we defined by the truth or non-truth (justness or unjustness) of our war—anymore than we were defined by that moment in history, other than specimens for moral discussion and historical analysis. 

Only we were there inside ourselves bearing witness to our authentic selves as a part of Consciousness (Spirit/God) in self-recognition — working toward the perfection of Its expressions in form. That is the larger reality that we were, but didn’t know at the time. That is the common thread that joins us all. That is the salient truth worth reflecting upon. Ultimately, it is the only truth our inner spiritual warrior speaks to and advances.

The advancement of consciousness is the noble truth that binds us all. It is in the failure to see each other in this common purpose of our common identity, that we divide ourselves through fear and hate, thereby continuing the cycle of dysfunction.