Veterans Day.
A day of honoring those that have served and those that have fallen. Sacrifices made for survival and the greater good.
War comes in many forms.
Battles are constantly held.
Where does your battle lay its head at the end of the day?
Pillows are a comfort. At night we have a chance to resolve the problems of the night. We are not all afforded pillows.
We are conditioned to believe that war is to be an external battle between opposing forces of opposite ideals where someone is right and someone is wrong. There is the possible hope of compromise but that comes after tremendous back-and-forth. It is also a very internal process and an on-going nature for those that have experienced it or any other atrocity that shatters their perspective of existence. That battle is inevitable at one point or another to try to begin to process what reality is capable of creating.
The calling for service throughout the centuries have been from family responsibilities of the land, requirements of rites of passages or through the forced act of drafting. Some battles are done with the shadow-self that represent that one version of a persona is going to express domination while other aspects are withheld internally. Battles are won and lost every day. To willfully partake in those battles internally/externally is a sign of strength towards protecting the ideals and laws of the lands in which you reside or in commonality towards a greater good. To some it is a battle to just wake up and continue to go about the same day over and over. Wars are won and lost over the level of perseverance of intention held within.
Not everyone is made for war. We are all called to service one way or another. We have a duty to ourselves and we have a duty to protect and cherish that which we hold dear to us. For me, my calling is to protect those I know and those I don’t. My war-torn experience comes from a different battlefield and one that still has come from a place of understanding that certain things are the way they are. Everyone’s calling is going to be from one place or another and done in many forms officially or not. To think of service is to respect all forms of it and to understand the battlegrounds are comprised of soldiers, cooks, doctors, nurses, strategists and to no surprise…artists.
The transformation of the experience of atrocities of war has led to some of the greatest works of fiction and non-fiction that has stood the test of time and have been adapted and translated many times over as history dictates them to be lessons to be learned. Prior to photography, the concept of war was only depicted in paintings and art that often glorified the true horrors experienced to get to the heart of the matter of what those moments represented for the victors of suffrage. Literature formed by conquest while others search for peace. Visuals are depicted by those that control the narrative afterwards. The ones defeated still have a voice though. The works of the forfeit can be lost or disvalued in the process but sometimes just enough of it remains to give perspective.
The introduction of photography into war time images changed the landscape of what is actually “war”. As technology introduced a new medium to visualize reality, artistic licenses were taken before ethics were added to the equation. Where we are at now is images of 9/11 and death occurring in real time. Hurricane Katrina and watching suicides as people fight for their lives from things that could have been prevented and protected. Staged iconic images have been created since the advent of photography that may or may not have been the foundation of perspective on strongly held beliefs. It is a dangerous slope when people’s willful decisions of acceptable casualties that has caused the in-grained images of what war is from this perspective. I imagine being in other countries, that experience is much greater to what has been experienced in my narrow point of view of what war is. I’ve grown up with an invisible enemy. Perhaps we all have as we find the conflicts within are what keep us at bay. That invisible enemy has been transformed from a war on terror to a war of biological proportions and even another one that has invaded means that are still invisible but able to be seen in the right light. I think of the war on drugs in particular and there are plenty of documentaries available to prove that there is always profitability to be had in those wars. What happens when those wars change course when money is to be had working with something than against? In suffrage people advance from the backs of others. In silence some of us allow it to happen. It is systematically a part of most societies and inevitable that there are various levels of comfort that one strives for in order to find happiness. The poorest man in the world can be filled with the joy of many while others may never be able to dream a dream on their own accord. We work with what we have available and we try to make a difference. That can be done through battles, laughter, commonality of family adopted or birthed, or anonymously while we help one another out. One should lends another. We all shoulder weight and we should never be one to believe that there is ever a moment to not be able to breakdown barriers and realize that resolve is no longer present. We all have our moments that simply cannot be held back. To allow that to come out is something that is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of significance and one that most people are not able to share publicly let alone privately.
Every country has their iconic images of resilience and of standing tall in the face of adversity. Some of those iconic images that stand the test of time have been molded and adapted several times as new meaning to old battles are forever changing the landscape of how one is to express connections that may or may not be understood until later on in life. For me a Day of Future Past became one of Stonewall not realizing the implications of it until later in life while realizing the full responsibility of evoking something into the real world and an indication of where things have occurred in my life. My battles are different for some, universal for many. We all have our battles. We all have a family to back up beliefs one way or another.
Are we all soldiers in something we are not aware of? We soldier on nevertheless. We do so unaware at times and very aware in others. Even when left alone it is important to note that we are not alone. Someone is always there. Someone is always capable of listening and someone is always available. I’m just me but always available if I can help. That is a start.
To get into the horrors for the everyday solider is more so a modern concept with the help of documented biographies, autobiography and recordings of those that experienced what is called life. Social media has evolved that availability, but it is also of note to remember that the introduction of the internet created a whole new connection of meeting people that we may or may not ever get to know in a physical sense. I remember being young talking to people in chat rooms. That evolved over the years to people on some of the first social media platforms to what evolved to apps. Never really know who you are talking to at times, but in other times you find great connections that stick with you. Innocent in its approach but never without predators. The evolution of the internet has created a sounding board that is both positive and negative. There is the voice of many played several different ways where algorithms can predict a pulse of what is going on in the world as much as it can be singled out to specific topics and points of interest. How you play with that presence is to understand that everyone has opinions and everyone has a voice, but it is important to either block out one way or the other or understand that sometimes you have to grab the bull by the horns and take control of a conversation. Control is always a contention point and definitely an illusion to something else hidden inside. What is protected and what is given are two completely different things. Always protect what is given in trust.
You took a screenshot. A small piece of my life shared. A small piece given or taken. Aware or not, I am aware that when one loses their ability to speak there are other means to get things across. We lose our voice at many times in our lives. 3 days. 3 years. Always a whisper here and there. The fluidity of it held back by the things we have learned and have not learned. I accept my faults and weaknesses. I’m learning. I’m trying.
The stories we are privy to come from father to son, mother to daughter, grandparents to grandchildren, neighbors to neighbors and stranger to new acquaintances. If we learn to say hello perhaps we can learn more from one another than we can on our own internal journeys. To discount and judge is always going to be a battleground for the ones you place judgement on. Extrapolate what you can, but when it comes down to it the silent treatment is going to say more than you can ever think could be in conjecture. Let people in though. Try. Trust. Trust someone. Trust anyone. Live. Laugh. Love. Try not to take on the weight of the world because you will find that with all the money in the world, your voice is more powerful than anything thrown your way. Every interaction you make is an imprint. Every second a memory the minute it passes through. Try to be the best you knowing someone is always going to judge you anyways.
I am not a veteran in the aspect that you would think. Where my battles have been fought has been on the external/internal struggle of the self. In those struggles of conflict and understanding I’ve come to explore what has partially been in the realm of the shadow-self in manners that could use expansion but used in a manner to not repress what is held within as a presents itself. There is always a golden shadow to be found though. A golden lining to something once considered to be of silver. To be aware of your past is to be aware of mistakes and to try to grow from that. Just as inner battles transform the physical appearance, so true is it that the internal transforms as well. Those battles make or break a person. Having been someone broken over and over, I understand that my time is of understandable consideration that we make the best of what we have been afforded. I am very aware of the advantage of others at the expense of some. War-fronts is literally putting on a mask and walking out the door knowing brighter days could be there just as much as others there to take advantage of a situation.
Wars are fought every day but not every day is a struggle. Remember that.
Remember that when you give up, someone is there. My generation has been very unique having grown from no internet to being connected to any person in the world if we only speak and ask. Sometime unnoticed and other times heard very clearly. Veterans come in many forms. I ask you to consider the generation asked to wear multiple hats for far less than what was afforded for as much as I ask you to respect those lost in battles that may or may not have been necessary and the lives transformed from experiencing things that no one should ever experience in any regard but is a necessity to what is considered existence. Respect people. Respect PTSD. Respect people’s memories of trauma. Respect people’s lives as we all have a unique remix of how things are processed. We are all discarded and taken advantage of. We cannot win them all even if we tried. That is probably why we choose our tribes wisely knowing that once commonality is found, it is difficult to break a bond.
Often discarded afterwards, veterans are to be respected. To survive war is to survive things that will never fully be understood unless explained. You don’t know what they have been through unless you ask or if they tell. Either in times of war or peace, there is always going to be that internal battle of self that is going to be present one way or another. War in the front, War in the head. We all have our battles.
I ask you to try to get to know a veteran or someone of service. That service could be someone of war or someone of food. Humanity exists regardless. You may find that the service you are referring to is not necessarily the one you were thinking of and may find a friend in the process.
Soldiers are not necessarily the ones on the front lines. It is always an artist intent to find ways to let beauty come through one way or another. I trust you.
Keep on keeping on and remember we are all in this together.