blog/enigma

Sunday, March 23, 2008

11:22 AM

There is peace but it is a thing rarely known in this world of worries and sorrows and not to be confused with the absence of war, which is a very different thing. Peace comes from within man, a philosophical bent, a spiritual power which all too few men can know. The absence of war is a waiting, a time between storms. It may be because one side is afraid of another but usually it is because both are unsure of victory, because there is a balance or near balance of power. Let it be said, therefore, that our nations will probably never know peace in our time, true peace, but that the absence of war is possible and can be achieved by strategy, readiness and fortitude. By effort. More, let it be said that the absence of war is satisfactory for most of men's endeavours: to have his job, family, religion. the pillar of that kind of "peace" which is the absence of war is a preparedness to go to war, to defend and attack well enough so that one's possible enemies can never attack with certainty of victory, with impunity. (Stand Alone, pg237-238)

What troubled me was the sense of isolation. The isolation between what I did and what it was meant to be for, between what I did and what it was meant to be for, between what some rules said and what was done, between the camp and the real world, between - when I was a cadet, the officer and me, between me and the other cadets who were either bad at the game which training had become, or were good and didn't care to see it was all a game, and - when I was an officer, between me and the riflemen I led. I mean I did well. I got a sword, just like Mike had three years ahead of me. I did my father proud, as my mother kept saying. That wasn't the problem. It was the isolation. (Stand Alone, pg239)

Beyond that board game, we enjoyed peace or, as I learnt later, "the absence of war", which was enough for life to go on. (Stand Alone, pg241)

I must have know it all along. I just didn't think about it: life was just going along and if we didn't have peace or happiness, there was no war or sadness.
Isolation. Silence. The willingness and ability to stand on my own. To stand alone. This is how I'll describe it for now, until I learn better, when I think about it more. (Stand Alone, pg243-244)

How true.

signed, jiasheng

19th Sept
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