It has been reported that more soldiers have committed suicide than have died in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. This might be a good time to post this:
Mars On Love and War v3
Copyright 4/8/2007
Revised 6/10/2009
Donn Christianson
This is a spoken piece, best presented by a single speaker. A monologue.
I come to you – Mars; God of war, warrior’s Father.
Under my watchful eye, your men, and now women, carry shields, and wield weapons dire, in foreign lands.
Not in my name but in yours.
And yet, what is it that you do?
You send loved ones off to my realm.
They leave behind the peace and beauty of your arms, the bliss of your beds – and for what?
It matters not. To warriors, it matters not why you send them. It matters not why you allow your countries to send them.
They go. They swore an oath, so they go.
I will not send them all home.
I will not send them all home whole.
They shall not return to you unchanged.
Yet, when I do, when I return them to you…
Love them. Broken though they may be; love them.
Embrace your warriors, for they need you in their next darkest hour – that of returning home.
Accept them. Love them, just as they are, just as I have returned them to you.
Hold them, if they stay silent.
Stand by them if they speak of whence the came and what they saw.
Calm each sleepless night with your loving embrace.
Soothe their nightmares.
Kiss away their loneliness.
Bathe them in your love and cleanse their souls.
Only then, only after you do this, only after you accept my warriors, your warriors -- as you have sent them and as they have been returned.
Then and only then, consider sending them back to me, Mars.
Once more.
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