Books, not Weapons

When was the last time you read a book? Or, for you non-book readers out there, read any kind of publication at all?

Chances are, youโ€™ve been reading since the day you learned to read โ€“ and even now youโ€™re reading this! You may even frequent Facebook โ€“ catching up on your friendsโ€™ Facebook posts, or read news articles and press releases, food labels, magazines, etc.

Reading has become a necessary form of communication and a habit many of us share, and justly so! Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body and so there are countless benefits we receive the more we read. In a world of omnipresent screens, it can be easy to forget the simple pleasure of curling up with a good book. But the truth is that reading books can be more than entertainment.

It can be the most effective way to overcome stress, beating out old favorites such as listening to music, enjoying a cup of tea or coffee and even taking a walk. It doesnโ€™t matter what book you read, by losing yourself in a thoroughly engrossing book you can escape from the worries and stresses of the everyday world and spend a while exploring the domain of the authorโ€™s imagination.

As young children our minds are fed with stories and information, but sadly as we become adults, we far too often neglect one of the most important tools in life. Reading is the best way to improve your mind and if you want to get smart and stay smart so you can have the edge over the average person you will need to learn new things and reading is one of the best ways to learn and expand your knowledge as the man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read as books are the training weights of the mind as it keeps your brain in shape even when you reach old age.

In front of what I see and what I hear nowadays from what is being broadcasted and from all the brutality that we face I would remain insisting on books not weapons. We are all created the same in every aspect of creation. We are created physically involving the same features. We are all made with that specific organ that gives life to every other organ and the source of compassion which is not only a relationship between the healer and the wounded but a relationship between equals and it only becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.

That is why I believe that every combatant enters a battle gravely, with sorrow and great compassion, as if he were attending a funeral. He doesnโ€™t wish them personal harm nor does he rejoice in victory.

How could he rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men? It is not the dead rather the ones who lives through war have seen the dreadful end of the war, some might have been victorious, unwounded but deep within them, they carry the mark of the war, they carry the memories of war, the time they have spent with their comrades, the times when they had to dig in to foxholes to avoid shelling, the times when they hate to see their comrade down on the ground, feeling of despair, atrocities of the war, missing families, home.

They live through hell and often the most wounded, they live with the guilt, despair, of being in the war, they may be happy but deep down they are a different person. Not everyone becomes a hero. They live with the moments, time when they were unsuccessful, when their actions would have helped their comrades, when their actions get their comrades killed, they live with regret, joyous in the victory can never help them forget the time they have spent.

They become victorious for the people they have helped to loose, the decisions they have made, the courage they have shown but being victorious in the war has a price to pay, irrevocable. You can’t take a memory back from a person, even if they managed to lose their memory; their imaginations would still haunt as deep down their subconscious mind they would still know who they are and who they wereโ€ฆ.

Close your eyes for an instance and you can very well see your past, you canโ€™t change your past or the time you have spent as you have lived through all. That is why decoration with medals is not going to give your life back. The more you know, more experiences doesn’t make it easy rather than it makes its worse.

Arms and ammunition kills and frees from the misery but the experiences of war kills every day. It makes you cherish every day through the life. You may forget that you canโ€™t walk anymore, you may forget you canโ€™t use your right hand, you may forget the scars on your face but you can never forget war.

Life at war is never easy and only the ones who survived through it can understand. Soldiers are taught to fight but the actual combat starts after war which you are not even trained for. They rely on their weapons, leaders, comrades, God, luck in the war but here they rely on themselves to beat the horrors, they have seen hell, heaven, they have felt the mixed emotions of hope, despair, courage, victory, defeat, scared.

We never needed a weapon at all when we were born. Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children.

This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. That is why knowledge is a better weapon than a sword as books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory… that is why books are weapons. And it is a part of your dedication always to make them weapons for man’s freedom.

So whenever a soldier needed an escape, the antidote to anxiety, relief from boredom, a bit of laughter, inspiration, or hope, he cracked open a book and drank in the words that would transport him elsewhere. I am not a supporter of banning books; but like poison, some books should be kept away from simple minds who can’t take in the strong content they provide.

They can be more destructive than any lethal weapon as it ignites the imagination. That is why some books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled โ€˜This could change your life.โ€™ The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. And the surest path to wisdom is a liberal education which could only be obtained through reading.

Some read to remember the home they had left behind, others to forget the hell that surrounded them. Thatโ€™s why books uplift the weary souls and energize mindsโ€ฆbooks has the power to soothe an aching heart, renew hope for the future, and provide a respite when there was no other escape.

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