Take It To The Bank: Gardens Have Thorns ~ Life Has Horrors

 "80 years of armed conflict makes violent death the new normal." 

The Life And Times Of Brian Waddington 

Six of us in a small cabin on a hot and humid night. Even with the porthole open there was no breeze. Unable to sleep I listened to the conversations around me. 

A young woman in her late teens told of her need to 'go for a walk in the mountains'. I knew enough to know that a walk in the mountains was a code phrase for leaving to join the rebels / freedom fighters.

Being curious and having enough credibility I asked her why. She grew deadly calm, her answer shut me up.

"I'm just so tired having people point a gun at me and not having one of my own to point back." 

This conversation took place about thirty years ago. I don't know if she went for that walk, fell in love, got married, had a family, died in a firefight?

I do know that today as I write this another young woman waits at home with her children, hoping and praying that her husband, a brave and honourable soldier is not in a body bag  or horribly wounded the next time he comes home.

Where I live the ongoing constantly changing revolution that began as the Hukbalahap Rebellion circa 1942 has been destroying lives and killing people for approximately 80 years. There no end in sight.

Violence may well have become normal. Peace may have degenerated into merely no firefights in the neighbourhood. 

I understand what created this horror. I have no understanding of what's needed to end it. My hope and prayer is that someone does. 

Brian