PTSD

This morning I am offering a small consideration of thought to a very large serious subject. I have no expertise in this condition nor do I want to diminish the legitimacy and trauma of those who are going through it.

I just watched a magnificent program on PBS on PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I won’t go into the technological or even medical symptoms of this disorder that affects so many of the young soldiers returning from the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. I leave that to qualified medical personnel.

What I’d like to offer for thought is the legitimacy and efficacy of “spirit.” Not a single medical doctor or trained psychologist in the program mentioned, “spirit.” It is an understandable omission for science has yet to embrace the power of this unseen and unknowing force. Deep within each of us there is a gnosis of that power and its effect as a prime motivator within our being. We feel it even though we can't see it.

I believe our minds and bodies are motivated, controlled, influenced and even directed by our spirits, the divine essence of our being. That thought works for me. I think spirit is the only thing to survive our physical demise and therefore is the catylist of action, now and forever. The mind ends, as does the body; the spirit goes on forever.


What if...what if our spirits have evolved to a level where violence, killing, war, conflict, anything inimical to our natural spiritual condition of divine love is no longer a valid action or even a desired skill as a personal accoutrement of our “Being?”

What if?

Where does that leave us in the conflict between training for war, service to country or faith and the innate knowing within our hearts?

Having said that I do understand the difference between the necessity of stopping a bully and offering compassion and tough love. It is a very hard choice, both for individuals and for countries.