Yesterday I treated myself to the Frist Museum to see their latest installment, Samurai: The Way of the Warrior. I didn’t realize there was a Veteran’s Day parade being held on Broadway at the exact time I chose to visit the museum, but I did get to see a bit of it from the gift shop window.
The men and women marching in the Veteran’s Day parade are also former fighters. Some of them live lives marked by disability, mental illness, and poverty due to their service to their country. A significant percentage of the homeless were military veterans before President Obama made it a priority to increase spending to help get those vets off the streets and into stable housing along with programs to address their substance abuse and/or mental illness.
During my visit it occurred to me that we humans truly value war.
Oh, I know. War is hell. War is a last resort. War is a necessary evil. Those are things we say. But look at what we do. President Obama’s budget recommendations for fiscal year 2017 included $582.7 billion for defense spending.
The US budget for FY 2017 allocated almost $10 billion for the FBI and $70.3 billion for national and defense intelligence. And personal defense is a big deal as well. Americans spend an average of $15 billion on firearms. And that doesn’t include state and local funds spent on policing, another form of defense.
So what is it we truly value?
I think what we value is ourselves. And only ourselves. I want mine and to hell with the rest of you.
Today I refuse to occupy that space with you.
“I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion and elimination of ignorance, selfishness and greed.”
― His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Dogpaddling Through Life 
First of all, wowza! Those photos are beautiful! Second, what an interesting parallel between the life of the samurai and those of our American veterans I think we can all agree that the similarity is unfortunate. Isn’t it odd that some people don’t understand the need for a strong support system for our veterans? Great piece.
That would first entail our having compassion for others, which we don’t.
I so love you right now lol. Amazing post
Thank you! And I love you too!
Expanding Consciousness can be scary, Jen. We have trouble reconciling the idea that communal good and individual expression are NOT mutually exclusive concepts.
A beautiful exhibit in a beautiful museum. So glad you treated yourself! 😉 xoM
Perhaps so. But I have embraced the idea and will not go back.
I respect that and support you on your journey, Jen! 😉 xoM
Fascinating insight and reading. Thanks for always approaching our culture with a critical eye.
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I’ve always said that our European cousins have been so reluctant to engage in any kind of international conflict because their region was the nexus of the two deadliest conflicts of the 20th century. The United States, like most countries in the Western Hemisphere, was built with the blood and flesh of people who felt they had no choice but to make such sacrifices; whether they were the victors or the defeated. It’s a disgrace that so many of our military veterans are shuffled into obscurity to deal with their physical and mental wounds alone. If a society is going to send people into war, it should be prepared to help them when that task is done.
Love that you’re spending lunch hours with a cultural bent. Well done.
I am too. I love working in downtown Nashville.
Downtown areas are so vibrant and can easily stimulate the mind and heart. Enjoy those lunch hours!