An Apple and a Flag

Don't you wish that people did not have to stand beside a flag in a cemetery and weep? The flag represents what the person died for and why they died. Our word for it is "war."

I suppose it all started with an apple. Two people were told that they could have most everything but that there was something they were not supposed to possess. But a tempting voice told them that limits were something made up by those who were different from them so they stepped over the line and took it because they could.

We fight wars over land, causes, and maybe because "we can." Wars used to have a kind of strange nobility to them...if you can call killing someone who breathes the same air you do, noble. People would face each other wearing the garb of their nation. Flags would fly representing the "cause" and then it would start...the killing.

People looked at each other while they took life. A soldier would fall and another would step up and take the place of their comrade. The arrows would fly or later in history the smoke would clear and "time out" was called so that the dead could be buried.

Now we are "smarter" so we have smart bombs and drones that kill from a distance. They say our technology saves lives. It's tempting to believe this but then the apple was tempting too.

It would be nice if we could go back to that "garden" and try a "do over." Maybe this time there would be a debate as to whether or not the cause or new freedom was worth it.

But we live east of Eden. I wish we could be more careful with war though. It seems that all of our weapons these days are ones of "mass destruction" because they kill in powerful ways and even from great distances so that we no longer look at the breathing of the breath we take.

As the poet/song writer once said, "they may say I'm a dreamer...but I'm not the only one...someday I hope you'll join me...and the world will be as one."

For now I offer a prayer for those who stand beside flags and I remember those who could not wait for the dream to come true but who stepped into the cause because they felt they had to...

Bless you
jody