Casualties of War: Horrors of War Affect Many Lives

I awoke in the night praying for the people of Kabul, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, the Gaza Strip, Darfur and everywhere where there is war and strife in place of life. I was praying for the Lost Boys of Sudan, the people of Bosnia and the people of Vietnam. On and on, my heart was being pulled by the people of places where war has destroyed life as we know it and replaced it with hell on earth.

I recently watched the movie, "The Kite Runner" a movie based on the novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini. It opens in the city of Kabul sometime in 1975 before the invasion of Afghanistan by Russia. The children are playing in the streets and flying kites from the roof tops practicing for a kite flying tournament held once a year, an age old tradition in Kabul. There is life in the city, street merchants selling there wares, people going to and fro living everyday life in a city they love and call home. Later in the movie the main character returns to Kabul many years later after he has been living in exile in America. The city of Kabul has since suffered the invasion of Russia and then the tyrannical rule of the Taliban and it is a war zone. The streets are abandoned, except for the orphaned children running in the streets, the buildings are crumbling from war and lack of care, and life as we know it has been abandoned and replaced by fear. The impact of war on the city is overwhelming and effect on the people unimaginable.

As I lie there in the night thinking of war and how long the scars of war last, in my mind I was traveling back in time. Through the images of war I had seen in news reports and stories of war I knew from our history, moving back and out until the earth was a sphere floating in the heavens, covered not in blue seas and the continents, but seas run red with blood and the earth torn and scarred from war. In that moment I felt my heart skip and I felt such sadness for the earth and its' inhabitants. I felt sad and futile and did not see what good my prayer could do.

Then I remembered a news story a saw a few weeks ago about how the kites of Kabul were again flying in the skies and the children were again playing in the streets. Families were reintroducing the traditions of their homeland to their children, most of who had only known war and civil unrest. When I first heard this story I had thought, "Oh that's nice to hear". Now lying there in the middle of the night, I am again totally amazed at the fortitude and resilience of the human spirit. If in total darkness a glimmer of light shines the human heart will grasp hold of the light and nurture it to grow and fill the dark and empty spaces with a light that fills a war torn land with life and hope for a new day.

As human beings we are far from perfect, but we are amazing in our faith, in our love of life and in or ability to not only survive evil but to triumph over it.

This is where war is truly won or lost, in the heart and minds of everyday people, carrying on everyday life with courage and hope. Hope for a better life for their children and their children's children, a hope that they can live a normal life.

The main character of "The Kite Runner" is a writer who tells stories and the novelist who wrote this story is a writer who tells stories. It is interesting that it is a story teller, a person who in history is the keeper of the human story down through generations that captures the human side of war and makes it more than images on a screen, more than sad statistics, but a story that echoes in the night. It's these words and images of the story teller that wake you from your sleep and awakens your voice to join the myriads of voices through the ages praying for healing. Asking for the chance of a normal life, a normal life with all its strife and heartache accepted, but in a peaceful land where people have the opportunity to live without war or tyranny.

I will continue to pray in the quiet of the night for the "casualties" of war. I will pray for the kites of Kabul to continue to fly.

Source: "The Kite Runner", by Khaled Hosseini