A chat with my future wife...

I don't mean to indulge you all into my personal life, but I felt this discussion is appropriate to share.

My fiance is down on her luck as her grandmother is suffering from alzheimers and cannot make our wedding.

I won a few pieces of gold, persay, in the relationship by offering that our honeymoon would be used to go visit her as a couple.

Of course this discussion was met with a good deal of crying.

Out if it came the question, "what makes you cry [nafod] I haven't seen you do it yet?"

To this I answered two things:

1. Whenever I've made a decision that favored me over my family. I wish not to continue discussing this.

2. And here is where it gets complicated. I tear up whenever I bear witness to greatness. To men who gave all they could for a cause they believed in. I tear up as I stand at the clump of trees on cemitary ridge outside of Gettysburg Pennsylvania. I tear up in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. Hell, I tear up watching Das Boot.

Simply because these men. From all nations, be they Americans, British, French, Dutch, Belgian, German, Russian, Turkish, Italian, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, what have you, all fought for, and in some cases died for, what they believed in.

Their willingness not only to fight, but also to die, for something, for anything, that they believed in... simply put--makes them better men then me.

Just wondering if anyone else feels the same, An odd allure to those who so willingly would put their bodies in front of an opposing force for any cause.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Nessun Dorma gets me every time.

Really though, I know what you mean. When I see where my countrymen fell in battle, I can't help but shedding a tear. I cry every Volkstrauertag, and I come fairly close if I don't every Armistice Day. Everyone who fell has my deepest feelings with them, but remembering my relatives who fell in battle is almost more than I can bear to feel. And yet I do feel it, for who will remember them but I?

Same. Gettysburg and Lund. A lot of movies do the same thing to me. Not necessarily because it's war, but because these dead soldiers gave the ultimate price in their service.

So generally, the only thing that could make me cry was a very close friend/relative that died, or a war monument/field/movie.

I don't know if it happened to anyone else, but

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

at the end of Valkyrie, when Stauffenburg's aide stood in front of him to take the shot, and when Stauffenburg shouted "Long live sacred Germany!", that was very emotional.

I cried at the birth of my children.

I do tear up when I consider great examples of self sacrifice.

Guess I'm just a woos.

The only place that I've ever cried because of someone's sacrifice was when I visited the final resting place of my Grandfather at Bilibid Prison (He was in the Bataan Death March), Cell #238. He died three weeks prior to the McArthur's re-invasion.

Although I certainly have gotten chills at most other battle sites I've been to.

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Originally Posted by Wakizashi

The only place that I've ever cried because of someone's sacrifice was when I visited the final resting place of my Grandfather at Bilibid Prison (He was in the Bataan Death March), Cell #238. He died three weeks prior to the McArthur's re-invasion.

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:shame: However correct our strategic decision to abandon the Phillipines in early 1942, it is still cause for sadness. Those who we left there as an abandoned "rear guard" paid a horrific price. I am sorry for your family's loss. :bow:

We real men don't cry. We just allow ourselves to lose voluntary control of our tear glands for a few moments before reassuming control. :P

EDIT: Sorry to be so immature on such a solemn thread. :P Humor is my escape from despair. :P

I cry not because some men gave their life for an ideal, but because some people made them think that they would make a better world by giving their life.

Honestly, when I go to Verdun, or when I watch a documentary about war, I mostly cry because I'm wistening the parangon of human stupidity and inherent evilness.
For some reason, WWI is the war that touches me the most. So many young lads sent to death for a few meters of swamp...That trully makes me sad.

Our last WWI veteran died a year ago. He was an italian immigrant, who actually had to lie about his age to enter the army at the beginning of the war. Back then, he could barely speak or write french, but wanted to fight for this country because it offered his family a roof and emboded in his opinion human rights and democracy. He still was thankful to France when he died, in march 2008.

I trully don't know how such men can keep such an enthousiasm and faith in the world after witnessing the horrors of WW1.

I get all bent outta shape when I watch Amazing Grace, Waterloo, Letters From Iwo Jima all about sacrafice and sticking to one's guns. Conversley, when I watch the last episode of Black Adder goes Fourth, a series about men with differing views on the war, some scared of actually doing their duty and thing it is all absurd and others believeing in it and wanting to fight. But in the last several minutes they all share the same fear, but are forced over the top to certain death anyway. Vey moving.

Here it is!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ba-...eature=related

I would echo a lot of what was said above. One of the most moving places I have ever been was Monte Cassino - you stand outside this beautiful building, on top of a mountain looking down on the valley below and in the quiet sunlight you reflect on why anybody would want to attack this place - partly because it is so serene, but mainly because you feel that it would be so incredably difficult. You then go on to consider the lives and effort expended there - for an arguebly pointless battle in a sideshow theatre. It really brings home the whole tragedy of war and its consequences.

I think that (as is much my very late Grandfather's) sacrifice, wasn't usually intentionally fighting for solely his country. He was fighting to put a meal in his children's mouth, times were tough back then, better a Staff Sergeant than a Rancher's hand. He ultimately gave everything for his family, and then his country. I think that echoes more truth (and perhaps more sadness in war) than the young man who wants to claim glory for his country. Most of those men who gave their lives didn't do it for the advancement of their people, but rather the for the need of their family, whether it be a meager plate of food, or fighting to save his parents/siblings/spouse/children from the perceived threat of tyranny.

and despite all the hell that my grandfather went through at the hands of the Japanese, his cell mate (who died only a couple years ago) had said his last really insightful words were "I don't really hate them (the Japanese), I just don't like them much right now."

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Originally Posted by Wakizashi

and despite all the hell that my grandfather went through at the hands of the Japanese, his cell mate (who died only a couple years ago) had said his last really insightful words were "I don't really hate them (the Japanese), I just don't like them much right now."

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That is one of the most touching things I have ever read, thank you for sharing:2thumbsup:

I find the story of Los Ninos Heroes touching. Their decision to die rather than obey orders and retreat looks like a tragic waste of life, but then Truman laid a wreath at their memorial, and it turned out that their deaths made reconciliation between two nations possible.

I also find the story of the Christmas truce on the Western Front during WWI touching. But the next day they were shooting at each other again. Quite sad.

I know this may sound like "oh what stuff!" but I was moved to tears once while far away from home in Egypt, and just happened to be nearby during a morning reveille ceremony as the American flag was raised. Just the sight of my country's flag in that austere environment, it's jaunty stripes and stars on a field of blue against the brilliant blue sky....

I am sure that others here who have served their country far from home can recall such a similar experience. I also find as I get older, that I am more easily moved to cry whenever I witness something particularly beautiful, or when one sees the triumph of the human spirit over great adversity, no matter what country it happens in.

In Iraq, for instance, recently a group of soldiers were on a vehicular patrol when a small boy chasing a soccer ball suddenly ran in front of their vehicle. Although the driver avoided running him over, the boy was struck in the head by the passenger side mirror. Injured badly, the boy was immediately rushed to the hospital by the now worried squad of men. The driver was particularly stricken with remorse, fearing the boy would die. Amazingly the boy made a full recovery. After he was taken home to his family, the unit of the soldiers involved made a collection of soccer balls, baseballs, coloring books, candy, school supplies and toys and delivered them to the boy and his family. The driver was allowed to spend some individual time with the boy, which greatly relieved his guilt. This group of toughened veterans sat there, their eyes glistening, as the boy forgave his new friends. They have, because of their compassion, made many friends in the village from where the family resides. Just writing about it, has again moved me as much as when I first read this account.

...the amazing Human Spirit!

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Originally Posted by nafod

Just wondering if anyone else feels the same, An odd allure to those who so willingly would put their bodies in front of an opposing force for any cause.

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I do the same, though it not just reserved for dead soldiers, I tend to get emotional whenever I am witness to anything that stirs feelings of high regard, respect, and pride.