Throughout human history, there have been many wars and conflicts started mainly as a result of the greed, ego and geopolitical ambitions of a small group of leaders, who then steered their respective countries into war in order to achieve their personal agendas.
In that sense, it is quite disappointing that so many lives of ordinary people (soldiers & average citizens) were needlessly lost as a result of such wars and conflicts, which were mainly started in order to serve the agendas of those small group of leaders.
Instead, those leaders could've pursued a path of peace and mutual cooperation amongst each other and with their perceived "enemies", which at the end of the day, is truly the only way all nations and people on Earth can coexist and thrive.
What struck me is how the lady who wrote the letter was expressing how she was trying to, in a sense, keep herself together for everyone around her, to keep others from feeling depressed. I think the process of honoring those who have passed on is, like you said, a way of giving ourselves assurance that we have the possibility of being honored as well when we move into whatever the next realm is. Also, perhaps the honoring of the dead is a way of acknowledging that grief and everything that comes with it exists, that we do not have to be expected to hold ourselves together in the midst of great brokenness. The acknowledgement of grief and death is to allow ourselves to be fully human and express all that we need to within that process.
The numbers are hard to imagine…difficult to put into perspective. And then I sit back in my chair and stubbornly tell myself, it is true - and then I want to cry. Humans are both pathetic and inspiring...
Throughout human history, there have been many wars and conflicts started mainly as a result of the greed, ego and geopolitical ambitions of a small group of leaders, who then steered their respective countries into war in order to achieve their personal agendas.
In that sense, it is quite disappointing that so many lives of ordinary people (soldiers & average citizens) were needlessly lost as a result of such wars and conflicts, which were mainly started in order to serve the agendas of those small group of leaders.
Instead, those leaders could've pursued a path of peace and mutual cooperation amongst each other and with their perceived "enemies", which at the end of the day, is truly the only way all nations and people on Earth can coexist and thrive.
What struck me is how the lady who wrote the letter was expressing how she was trying to, in a sense, keep herself together for everyone around her, to keep others from feeling depressed. I think the process of honoring those who have passed on is, like you said, a way of giving ourselves assurance that we have the possibility of being honored as well when we move into whatever the next realm is. Also, perhaps the honoring of the dead is a way of acknowledging that grief and everything that comes with it exists, that we do not have to be expected to hold ourselves together in the midst of great brokenness. The acknowledgement of grief and death is to allow ourselves to be fully human and express all that we need to within that process.
The numbers are hard to imagine…difficult to put into perspective. And then I sit back in my chair and stubbornly tell myself, it is true - and then I want to cry. Humans are both pathetic and inspiring...