Every age and every life has its share of strife. But strife is just one thing that's often lowered to things like stress at work, traffic snarls, or being over weight. The meaning of the word has been dumbed down by the politically correct police to lull us into a sense of "this is normal." At one time, strife was akin to chaos.
In days past, some of which include recent recorded history, men and women rose to the challenge and took a stand against strife. Strife in its many facets is that which assaults all that is good and wholesome in life. This good and wholesome includes not just your way of life; it includes the very existence of life itself.
When an individual person's body (disease) is faced with oppression from invading forces bent on chaos, there can be only two paths of action. One path is submission. Here, the individual relinquishes personal freedom and submits to whatever chaos has to offer. The other choice is to fight.
When a person chooses to fight, he or she has made a conscious decision to take a stand against the invading tyranny. All methods are employed to not just defeat the invader, but to expel him. This fight takes heart and a huge chunk of will (ask any cancer survivor); it cannot be a small effort.
If a man's home is invaded, the above two choices also apply. If you submit, you die. If you fight, you have a chance to live. If one's way of life is assaulted, submission gives way to the forced adoption of a foreign belief, while fighting against the invader can lead to his defeat. It always comes down to these two actions; submit or fight.
So why do we fight? We fight to live. We fight to preserve our way of life. We fight to live free from the oppression of disease and from foreign oppressors. We fight to keep our freedom. No kind of freedom can be had without a fight. So, we fight the good fight.
Author's Note: Since this was first published, quite a bit has happened in the world. In particular, the Islamic State, a.k.a. ISIS. They have beheaded people, burned various religious shrines, and have become quite adept at forced religious conversion (convert or die). All of this seems so far away. Do not be lulled into sense of false security; nobody thought that September 11 could happen - I will never forget where I was or what I was doing on that fateful day. Can you? The Islamic State has threatened the Western world. They have threatened the USA. They have threatened our way of life. And yet, we still have our own home grown knuckle-heads that think it's cool to burn our flag in the name of free speech. It's time to grow up.
Author's Note: Since this was first published, quite a bit has happened in the world. In particular, the Islamic State, a.k.a. ISIS. They have beheaded people, burned various religious shrines, and have become quite adept at forced religious conversion (convert or die). All of this seems so far away. Do not be lulled into sense of false security; nobody thought that September 11 could happen - I will never forget where I was or what I was doing on that fateful day. Can you? The Islamic State has threatened the Western world. They have threatened the USA. They have threatened our way of life. And yet, we still have our own home grown knuckle-heads that think it's cool to burn our flag in the name of free speech. It's time to grow up.
Copyright @2014, 2015 Terry Unger
