One Tin Soldier Rides Awayby Jennifer HoffmanNovember 11, 2010=========================This week we celebrate Veteran's Day in the U.S., a day to honor those who have fought in wars and to celebrate the memory of those who did not return. As the daughter of a veteran I know first hand the terrible toll that war takes on us, whether we fight in them or live with someone who has. My father did several tours in Viet Nam and although I was very young when he returned after his first tour, I was empathic enough to know that he had been forever changed. The father I knew never returned home after being in that war.My father died twenty-one years ago but his spirit died many years before that, on the battlefields he fought in. He never spoke of his experiences and I knew his silence hid many paiful memories that he did not want to share. I also knew that he was not proud of some of the things he was forced to do but those are the wages of war. Today we are still fighting wars and we wonder whether that aspect of humanity will ever change. Can we imagine a world without war?The title of this article is from a song, One Tin Soldier Rides Away,' and its lyrics speak of the reasons we fight each other on the battlefield of life. The song reminds us that in the end, no one ever wins a war, there is always a price to pay when we believe that victory means that we must conquer someone else. That's true whether the war is between nations, people or within ourselves. There is no winner when life is a battlefield. The new question we can ask ourselves is can we imagine a world of peace? Can we imagine ourselves within peace?Like everything else, whatever we want in the world begins within each of us. We have to be willing to create peace if we want to end war. Each person we are 'at war' with, whether that is someone who is challenging us on some level, not giving us what we want or we are struggling with our own life, is an opportunity for us to imagine peace. What does it take to create the best, most peaceful, fulfilling outcome for everyone? Try to imagine having peace in and within this situation and then take the steps to create that. When each of us can imagine peace as the energy of the world we can create a world in which peace resides and there will be no need for war.Article Copyright ©2010 by Jennifer Hoffman. All rights reserved.
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