Man Down!

In Memoriam literally means "in memory of." It was made famous by the literary genius of the great Alfred Lord Tennyson, who wrote a poem titled In Memoriam.

Lord Tennyson originally thought to name it "The Way of the Soul." His Christian beliefs combined with death and loss of a dear friend (not a spouse) tried his soul and wounded his heart. He eloquently shared the finest details of his unsullied mind and heart. His words have great meaning to the warrior.

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

Or consider these words. The warrior who's comrades die and his widow knows them well.

So runs my dream, but what am I?
An infant crying in the night
An infant crying for the light
And with no language but a cry.

And later on in another part of the poem, Tennyson writes of faith and the challenge of believing in God. He writes:

If e'r when faith had fallen asleep,
I hear a voice 'believe no more'
And heard an ever-breaking shore
That tumbled in the Godless deep;

A warmth within the breast would melt
The freezing reason's colder part,
And like a man in wrath the heart
Stood up and answer'd 'I'd have felt.'

No, like a child in doubt and fear:
But that blind clamour made me wise;
Then was I as a child that cries, 
But, crying knows his father near;

I think I've experienced that very same thing while in Iraq. I wrote about it here:
http://www.mormon.org/me/2GXB/JeffreyDenning 

A lot of negative feelings are magnified during tragedies and thereafter. Anger, hurt, grief. But there is hope in tomorrow. There is hope in the glorious resurrection, and in the faith and knowledge that life goes on after death.

"For his anger endureth but a moment... weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Psalms 30:5).


To read amazing interviews with warriors, check out Warrior SOS: Interviews, Insights and Inspiration, the book on Amazon.com. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D3WO7VK