All gave some and Some gave all
(Military Men's Perspective)
For all our deeds after its done, our ideas after its realisation, our words after its spoken, our thoughts after its penned, our feelings after its expressed; we finally subject the indices to an audience of one, in secret, with no applause, coming heads on with the image that reflects in the mirror, that's when we truly get to our moment of validation.
I love the Uniformed men, especially the Soldiers. The discipline, charisma, loyalty and utmost dedication with which they carryout their duties and live their lives one day at a time because the next minute is not assured. I had a stint at a military school for part of my junior secondary education and though I wasn't well informed then, the memories of the treatment we were given by the Officers and Men is still endearing (well personally). More so, I've seen myriads of good Hollywood Military movies, from Marines to Navy Seals, and read about them in books and online especially when the Navy Seals went on the mission to eliminate Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist group, Al Qaeda and lost no soul. These set of people gave their all. Stay with me!
I found the manner in which these set of humans take cognisance of three major abstractions which are indispensable to everyone with flesh and blood, whether we agree or not - Love, Time and Death. These three aren't biased in anyway, whether an infant or adult, we all or rather we will all as a matter of certainty come in contact with them, but this write-up takes cognisance of the military men's perspective because they carry out their duties for a sole reason; Honour!
❤Love - This transcends time, it's remains after one is gone because most times that's the only genuine expression we have to offer so as to make the world beautiful. In a soldier's life, the love "He" has for his country and family is untainted. Soldiers and Jesus have something in common; the former dies for our lives while the later died for our soul. The love a soldier has for his family is one which grows with each passing day and he doesn't fail to show it because he doesn't know how long he'll stay with them. Soldiers see themselves as friends to one another and this reflects in the type of brotherly love they share. The U.S.A Marines have the slogan "Semper Fidelis" which translates to "Always Faithful" and also takes prestige based on the fact that during a war they "leave no Man behind" irrespective of the situation. In fact, the late Steve Jobs spoke about loving what you do, this is love in its simplest form because you'll probably live life doing that particular thing and if you think of the fact that the next minute is not guaranteed, you probably show the love you have got massively for what you do and your loved ones as soldiers do for their country and family.
⏳Time - This is the true cost of living. The amount of financial capacity you have is directly proportional to the amount of time and commitment you exert to doing what you do. This is a precious commodity which cannot be gotten back if frivolously spent. Most soldiers live away from "HOME", by this I don't literally mean a physical space, I mean a blood related family. Time to soldiers may be different from what we civilians see it as because to them every second during a war might take them away from their earthly home to the home beyond should they fail to take the first accurate shot at an enemy; timing is everything. The time they have to have conversations with their families either via Skype, phone calls or letters are so precious they won't want to miss it for the world; and when they are finally home, they spend every minute of each day with their families knowing fully well that it's purely due to chance/Grace. They simply live to fight another day. Whatever time we have now should be spent doing the things we love with the people we love and can make us better because the next minute truly isn't assured.
☠Death - This comes to every living being. The difference is that Soldiers already assented to their death warrant at the point of recruitment. With the consciousness of this fact most of them live life as simple as possible because the next minute isn't assured especially in a war thorn zone. They give their all to their country and family even till the point of death. Mark Schultz said it better in his song "letters from war", is there anything funny when a soldier cries? So, death didn't even take them, they gave themselves to it proving that truly death isn't the greatest loss in life, the greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.
P.S(I): Every aspect also apply to every human, the love we share while we live, how our time is spent and the way we develop our deathbed mentality.
P.S(ii): In its simplest form, fate is also a fickle mistress which can change sides anytime.
#DedicatedToAllTheFallenHeroes
✍
Ogunlana A. Owolabi
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