Thanks for linking me to this post. While I have no dealings with people who consider themselves on the "warrior" path, it does remind me that people in general just don't get what it is like to be in battle. I plan to specialize in studying WWI in grad school and I've already read memoirs, stories and poems written by the men who fought in the war and...I imagine even those words fail to describe how horrible the conditions they had deal with were.
There's so much more I could say, but I don't want to write an essay in your comments.
Thanks for this link. I'm pagan, as is my husband who follows a Heathen path. He's also in the military and is an infantry soldier. He follows a warrior path because that's his calling in life, which is also why he's in the army. It was such a strong calling for him, that he couldn't 'be' anything else.
I want to know, if those computer role playing pagans, really do feel so strongly about being on the 'warrior path' why they don't involve themselves more with either full time, part time military or other support services?
What gets in the way for them? Or, is there 'warrior path' one of ideas instead?
I imagine even those words fail to describe how horrible the conditions they had deal with were.
I have a friend who is a two-tour Vietnam vet, and he's so profoundly affected by it that you can't try to wake him (not that you need to, since he wakes up at 5am like clockwork) without risking getting put in a sleeper hold before you knew what hit you.
There's also a couple of people I know of through close friends or family members who, for years, wouldn't even talk about their experiences in the wars they were in. When they finally did, often decades later, it still brought them to tears.
It's interesting -- I've often heard the warrior path described in metaphorical terms lately. Not so much about literal soldiering and fighting as an attitude of standing up for something(s) and fighting for them in politics or whatever. Like someone in Greenpeace might consider themselves on a type of warrior path, especially if they are out in their "real world ops".
Not really sure of it myself. I've known very few (none?) people who have actually been involved in fighting who somehow glory in it as a path.
no subject
on 2011-05-22 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-05-22 06:18 pm (UTC)There's so much more I could say, but I don't want to write an essay in your comments.
no subject
on 2011-05-23 12:27 am (UTC)I want to know, if those computer role playing pagans, really do feel so strongly about being on the 'warrior path' why they don't involve themselves more with either full time, part time military or other support services?
What gets in the way for them? Or, is there 'warrior path' one of ideas instead?
no subject
on 2011-05-23 04:48 pm (UTC)I have a friend who is a two-tour Vietnam vet, and he's so profoundly affected by it that you can't try to wake him (not that you need to, since he wakes up at 5am like clockwork) without risking getting put in a sleeper hold before you knew what hit you.
There's also a couple of people I know of through close friends or family members who, for years, wouldn't even talk about their experiences in the wars they were in. When they finally did, often decades later, it still brought them to tears.
no subject
on 2011-05-24 05:20 am (UTC)Not really sure of it myself. I've known very few (none?) people who have actually been involved in fighting who somehow glory in it as a path.