in the book 1984 winston says when you are in pain all you can think is to make the pain stop, there is no enduring the pain when you have an option for release, and i notice with the slightest pain in my ankle or my back how i fall to the floor like a sack of potatoes, unused to enduring anything remotely uncomfortable, let alone painful, and i wonder as i watch your life unfold sometimes beside mine what pain you endure, what exasperations you swallow or spit into your blogs or your diary or the ears of your sister, or did you need someone to confide in besides God

there are heroes who endure their pain, or take on another's pain, heroes honored by our nation for giving their life for their comrades, men who love so much that when the question is put to them they laugh because they made their choice long ago to love and to give

there are heroes who never tell you of their pain, but simply endure day to day, and when they are gone and we discover the truth of it we are shocked that they bore their burden alone when we would have preferred to share had it been ours

i am a man of low character, if these folks are the standard...i sometimes wonder if it is too late to become a man worth knowing, but long habit makes me think it unlikely, if possible

Few men are born brave; many become so through training and force of discipline

fear is not knowing what to expect, what will happen, how to react, love is its counter and a gift of God for his beloved, if i cannot be brave can i learn to love, my idea above is those heroes loved and that's how they were brave, out of love, they preferred another to themselves

i find lately i am much more likely to want to cry, i want to cry when i read the stories of these men on military blogs, but as to your suffering through loving me i am more likely to attribute it to your lot in life to suffer, evidence of God's grace toward me, and your desire for rich rewards in heaven for enduring my company